There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.

It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever.

It's easier to know people in general than one person in particular

Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.

Passion often makes a fool of the cleverest man and often makes the most foolish men clever

The desire of appearing clever often prevents our becoming so.

There are no accidents so unlucky from which clever people are not able to reap some advantage, and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to turn them to their own disadvantage.

We are not fond of praising, and never praise any one except from interested motives. Praise is a clever, concealed, and delicate flattery, which gratifies in different ways the giver and the receiver. The one takes it as a recompense of his merit, and the other bestows it to display his equity and discernment.

The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say.