216 quotes
The love of justice is, in most men, nothing more than the fear of suffering injustice.
Absence extinguishes small passions and increases great ones, as the wind will blow out a candle, and fan a fire.
The love of justice is simply in the majority of men the fear of suffering injustice.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)
Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.
Neither love nor fire can subsist without perpetual motion; both cease to live so soon as they cease to hope, or to fear.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)
There is merit without elevation, but there is no elevation without some merit.
Everyone speaks well of his heart; no one dares speak well of his mind.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)
In the human heart there is a perpetual generation of passions, such that the ruin of one is almost always the foundation of another.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)
We all have strength enough to bear the misfortunes of others.
Réflexions ou Sentences et Maximes Morales (1655)
As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.
Réflexions ou Sentences et Maximes Morales (1655)
Our virtues are most frequently but vices in disguise.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)
Most people judge men only by success or by fortune.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)
Weakness is the only fault which cannot be cured.
The mind is always the dupe of the heart.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)
Passion very often makes the wisest men fools, and very often too inspires the greatest fools with wit.
A man is perhaps ungrateful, but often less chargeable with ingratitude than his benefactor is.
Certain good qualities are like the senses; those who lack them can neither appreciate nor understand them.
The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.
The only good copies are those which exhibit the defects of bad originals.
It is a species of coquetry to make a parade of never practising it.