Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn

There are wounds of self-love which one does not confess to one's dearest friends.

The wisest man may always learn something from the humblest peasant.

The weak-minded man is the slave of his vices and the dupe of his virtues.

The hatred we bear our enemies injures their happiness less than our own.

The happiness of the tender heart is increased by what it can take away from the wretchedness of others.

Promises retain men better than services; for hope is to them a chain, and gratitude a thread.

Pleasure limps for him who enjoys it alone.

Many fortunes, like rivers, have a pure source, but grow muddy as they grow large.

Loud indignation against vice often stands for virtue with bigots.

It requires less character to discover the faults of others than to tolerate them.

It is easy to be virtuous in prospective.

Happiness is where we find it, but very rarely where we seek it.

Doubt springs from the mind; faith is the daughter of the soul.

Do not crowd the understanding; it can comprehend so much and no more. A pint pot will not contain the measure of a quart.

Adversity, which makes us indulgent to others, renders them severe towards us.

Let us believe neither half of the good people tell us of ourselves, nor half of the evil they say of others.

Every generous illusion of youth leaves a wrinkle as it departs. Experience is the successive disenchanting of the things of life; it is reason enriched with the heart's spoils.

What we gain by experience is not worth that we lose in illusion.

In love we are not only liable to betray ourselves, but also the secrets of others.

It is more pitiable once to have been rich than not to be rich now.

Let us respect gray hairs, but, above all, our own.

Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.

Without big words, how could many people say small things?

A pedant holds more to instruct us with what he knows, than of what we are ignorant.

Beauty and ugliness disappear equally under the wrinkles of age; one is lost in them; the other hidden.