"Next to sound judgment, diamonds and pearls are the rarest things in the world."

"At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone."

"The passion of hatred is so long lived and so obstinate a malady that the surest sign of death in a sick person is their desire for reconciliation."

"The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others. He who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own cleverness is perfectly well pleased with you."

"Man has but three events in his life: to be born, to live, and to die. He is not conscious of his birth, he suffers at his death and he forgets to live."

"Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings."

"Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author."

"They that have lived a single day have lived an age."

"Poverty may be the mother of crime, but lack of good sense is the father."

"We should laugh before being happy, for fear of dying without having laughed."

"We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together."

"It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor the judgment to hold their tongues."

"There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work."

"We should keep silent about those in power; to speak well of them almost implies flattery; to speak ill of them while they are alive is dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly."

"The court is like a palace of marble; it's composed of people very hard and very polished."

"As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before."

"It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not."

"A slave has but one master; an ambitious man has as many masters as there are people who may be useful in bettering his position."

"A mediocre mind thinks it writes divinely; a good mind thinks it writes reasonably."

"Everything has been said, and we are more than seven thousand years of human thought too late."

"No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less."

"A man can keep another's secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others."

"I would not like to see a person who is sober, moderate, chaste and just say that there is no God. They would speak disinterestedly at least, but such a person is not to be found."

"Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us."

"If our life is unhappy it is painful to bear; if it is happy it is horrible to lose, So the one is pretty equal to the other."

"Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanity."

"The regeneration of society is the regeneration of society by individual education."

"There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live."

"A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought."

"The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest."

"Children enjoy the present because they have neither a past nor a future."

"Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property."

"Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank."

"Logic is the technique by which we add conviction to truth."

"It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men."

"Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness."

"A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were."

"We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together."

"The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth."

"To be among people one loves, that's sufficient; to dream, to speak to them, to be silent among them, to think of indifferent things; but among them, everything is equal."

"A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself."

"Time makes friendship stronger, but love weaker."

"The giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile?"

"Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect."

"Love and friendship exclude each other."

"All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone."

"One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories."

"Politeness makes one appear outwardly as they should be within."

"The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his fortunes."

"The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one."