Great Throughts Treasury

"What keeps us from abandoning ourselves entirely to one vice, often, is the fact that we have several."

"What makes false reckoning, as regards gratitude, is that the pride of the giver and the receiver cannot agree as to the value of the benefit."

"What makes lovers never tire of one another is that they talk always about themselves."

"What makes us so bitter against people who outwit us is that they think themselves cleverer than we are."

"What makes vanity so insufferable to us, is that it hurts our own."

"What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them."

"What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love."

"What often prevents our abandoning ourselves to a single vice is, our having more than one."

"What seems generosity is often disguised ambition, that despises small to run after greater interests."

"What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one."

"Whatever difference may appear in the fortunes of mankind, there is, nevertheless, a certain compensation of good and evil which makes them equal."

"Whatever disgrace we may have deserved or incurred, it is almost always in our power to re-establish our character."

"What we call generosity is for the most part only the vanity of giving; and we exercise it because we are more fond of that vanity than of the thing we give."

"Whatever discoveries we may have made in the regions of self-love, there still remain many unknown lands."

"Whatever ignominy or disgrace we have incurred, it is almost always in our power to reestablish our reputation."

"Whatever good things people say of us, they tell us nothing new."

"Whatever distrust we may have of the sincerity of those who converse with us, we always believe they will tell us more truth than they do to others."

"Whatever disgrace we may have deserved, it is almost always in our power to re-establish our character."

"When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes."

"When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness."

"When not prompted by vanity, we say little."

"When a man seems to be wise, it is merely that his follies are proportionate to his age and fortune."

"When our hatred is too bitter it places us below those whom we hate."

"When our vices quit us, we flatter ourselves with the belief that it is we who quit them."

"When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time."

"When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe."

"When we enlarge upon the affection our friends have for us, this is very often not so much out of a sense of gratitude as from a desire to persuade people of our own great worth, that can deserve so much kindness."

"When the heart is still agitated by the remains of a passion, we are more ready to receive a new one than when we are entirely cured."

"When we exaggerate the tenderness of our friends towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own merit."

"When we seek reconciliation with our enemies, it is commonly out of a desire to better our own condition, a being harassed and tired out with a state of war, and a fear of some ill accident which we are willing to prevent."

"Who lives without any madness, it is not so wise as he thinks."

"Who lives without folly is not so wise as be thinks."

"Why can we remember the tiniest detail that has happened to us, and not remember how many times we have told it to the same person."

"Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?"

"Wisdom consists, not in stumbling on truth by chance but in marking, learning, and inwardly digesting it."

"Women can less easily surmount their coquetry than their passions."

"Wit sometimes enables us to act rudely with impunity."

"Women in love pardon great indiscretions more easily than little infidelities."

"Women know not the whole of their coquetry."

"Women find it far more difficult to overcome their inclination to coquetry than to overcome their love."

"Women's virtue is frequently nothing but a regard to their own quiet and a tenderness for their reputation."

"Women who love pardon more readily great indiscretions than little infidelities."

"Youth changes its inclinations through heat of blood; old age perseveres in them through the power of habit."

"Youth changes its tastes by the warmth of its blood; age retains its tastes by habit."

"You can find women who have never had an affair, but it is hard to find a woman who has had just one."

"You are never so easily fooled as when trying to fool someone else."

"Youth is perpetual intoxication; it is a fever of the mind."

"Youth is a continual intoxication; it is the fever of reason."