A Vain Man Finds His

False Greatness Is Unsociable And Remote: Conscious Of Its Own Frailty, It Hides, Or At Least Averts Its Face, And Reveals Itself Only Enough To Create An Illusion And Not Be Recognized As The Meanness That It Really Is. True Greatness Is Free, Kind, Familiar And Popular; It Lets Itself Be Touched And Handled, It Loses Nothing By Being Seen At Close Quarters; The Better One Knows It, The More One Admires It.

Most Men Employ The First Part Of Life To Make The Other Part Miserable. [fr., La Plupart Des Hommes Emploient La Premiere Part Vie A Rendre L'autre Miserable.]

The Court Is Like A Palace Built Of Marble; I Mean That It Is Made Up Of Very Hard But Very Polished People. [fr., La Cour Est Comme Un Edifice Bati De Marbre; Je Veux Dire Qu'elle Est Composee D'hommes Fort Durs Mais Fort Polis.]

The Very Impossibility Which I Find To Prove That God Is Not, Discovers To Me His Existence.

High Birth Is A Gift Of Fortune Which Should Never Challenge Esteem Towards Those Who Receive It, Since It Costs Them Neither Study Nor Labor.