“Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and fans the bonfire.”

“One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.”

“Almost always we are bored by people to whom we ourselves are boring.”

“A weakling is incapable of sincerity.”

“The truest way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.”

“87.—Men would not live long in society were they not the dupes of each other. [A maxim, adds Aimé Martin, "Which may enter into the code of a vulgar rogue, but one is astonished to find it in a mor...”

“The pleasure of criticizing takes away from us the pleasure of being moved by some very fine things.”

“But instead of spending our lives running towards our dreams, we are often running away from a fear of failure or a fear of criticism.”

“The ugliest government is the one which is spreading fear to its own people! The finest government is the one which encourages its own people to criticize the government harshly.”