The duration of our passions is no more dependent upon us than the duration of our life. #13

Our self-love endures more impatiently the censure of our tastes than of our opinions. #19

We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of other people. #22

Philosophy easily triumphs over past and future evils, but present evils triumph over philosophy #26

Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily. #37

We criticize the faults of others more out of pride than goodness; and we criticize them not so much to correct them as to persuade them that we are free from their faults. #38

We make promises according to our hopes, and we keep them according to our fears. #41

Those who concern themselves overmuch with little matters usually become incapable of dealing with large ones. #47 Our character determines the value of everything that fortune bestows upon us. #59

There is no misfofrtune so terrible that clever people cannot profit from, nor fortune so good that foolish people cannot harm themselves. #61

People's happiness and misery both depend on their dispositions no less than on their fortunes. #62

Sincerity is openness of heart, and we find it in very few people. What we usually see is nothing more than an artful trickery designed to gain the confidence of others. #64

Truth does less good in the world than the appearance of truth does evil. #70

No disguise can hide love for long where it exists, nor feign it where it does not. #84

It is more shameful to distrust our frinds than to be deceived by them. #86

Distrust on our part justifies deceit in others. #89

Everybody complains of their memory, but nobody complains of their judgement. #96

Sometimes people who are ungrateful are less at fault than their benefactors. #112

The flaws of the mind, like the flaws of the face, increase with age. #117

The cleverest of all schemes is knowing how to seem to fall into the traps that others have set for us. We are never so easily deceived as when we set out to deceive others. #132

It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves. #137

We do not have much to say when vanity is not prompting us. #147

Few people are wise enough to prefer useful criticism over treacherous flattery. #153

Nature provides the merit, and fortune sets it to work. #166 The world more often rewards the appearance of merit than merit itself. #180

We repent not so much out of regret for what we have done as out of fear for what might happen to us. #218

Hypocrisy is the respect that vice pays to virtue. #228

Pride does not want to owe, and self-love does not want to pay. #243

Few things are impossible in themselves; what we lack is not the means but the perseverance to help us succeed. #244

Supreme shrewdness means knowing well the value of things. #250

True eloquence consists of saying all that is necessary, and only what is necessary. #263

What we call generosity is usually no more than the vanity of giving, an emotion that we love more than that which we give away. #276

Absence diminishes the lesser passions and increases the great ones, just as the wind extinguishes candles but fans a great fire. #284

Some evil people would be less dangerous if they had no good at all in them. #291

Men's worth, like the harvest, has its season. #304

We often pardon those people who bore us, but we cannot pardon those who find us boring. #316

Weak people cannot be sincere. #324

In jealousy, there is more self-love than love. #376

True friendship ends envy, and true love ends flirtation. #379

As our character declines, so also does our taste. #411

Most of our faults are more pardonable than we means we use to hide them. #419

We may seem great in a post beneath our ability, but we often seem little in a post above it. #421

Confidence does more for conversation than wit. #423

Few people know how to be old. #436

It is easier to understand Man in general than to understand one man in particuliar. #437

We should not judge people's worth by their great potential, but by the use they make of it. #439

We would yearn for very few things if we clearly understood what we wanted. #444

Old fools are more foolish than young fools. #468

Supreme shrewdness means knowing well the value of things. #18 (Withdrawn Maxims)

In the adversity of our best friends, we always find something that does not displease us. #59 (Attributed by Saint-Évremond)

For women, hell is old age.

The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it. Maximes ( (1678)) #245

There is scarcely a single man sufficiently aware to know all the evil he does. #269

In most of mankind, gratitude is merely a secret hope for greater favors. #298

One is never as unhappy as one thinks, nor as happy as one hopes. (Dutch edition, (1664)) #128

Quarrels would not last so long if the fault were on only one side.

We seldom attribute common sense except to those who agree with us.

Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.

The intellect is always fooled by the heart.

It is more shameful to distrust one's friends than to be deceived by them.

If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing those of others.

We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.

The love of justice in most men is simply the fear of suffering injustice.

We need greater virtues to sustain good fortune than bad.

Most usually, our virtues are only vices in disguise.

To refuse praise reveals a desire to be praised twice over.

Self-interest speaks all sorts of tongues, and plays all sorts of roles, even that of disinterestedness.

Nothing prevents us from being natural so much as the desire to appear so.

To succeed in the world, we do everything we can to appear successful.