Siamo così abituati a mascherarci di fronte agli altri che finiamo per farlo anche di fronte a noi stessi. - François de La Rochefoucauld

If one were to judge of love according to the greatest part of the effects it produces, it might very justly pass for hatred rather than kindness.

Self-control is a dread of that scorn and envy which people, overcome by their own happiness, deserve. It is a vain display of our moral strength. Self-control, in a word, is the desire of most successful men to appear greater than their achievements.

398. — Of all our faults that which we most readily admit is idleness: we believe that it makes all virtues ineffectual, and that without utterly destroying, it at least suspends their operation.