Virtue, that means increasing happiness; vice increases unhappiness. All the rest is only hypocrisy or bourgeois asininity. La vertu, c'est augmenter le bonheur; le vice augmente le malheur. Tout le reste n'est qu'hypocrisie ou ânerie bourgeoise. - Stendhal, Correspondence. To M. di Fiore, at Paris, Civita-Vecchia, the 1st nov. 1834 
Matilde Dembowski, who Stendhal loved as much as happiness.
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An ambitious person who failed at what he wanted to do and lives in despair, reminds me of Ixion, who was tied to a wheel for having embraced a cloud. L'ambitieux qui a manqué son objet, et qui vit dans le désespoir, me rapelle Ixion is sur la roue pour avoir embrassé un nuage. - Chamfort, Maxims and Thoughts, aphorism 95  Ixion tortured on his wheel. Zeus invited Ixion to Olympus where he became amorous of Zeus' wife Hera. When Zeus found out, he made a copy of Hera out of a cloud and sent it to Ixion, who seduced it. In the middle of the act, Zeus walked in, the cloud turned back to smoke and Ixion was punished by being tied to a wheel that rolled around the world. The same justice of spirit that makes us write good things makes us stop and suspect that they are not good enough to merit praise. A medioce spirit tries to write divinely; a good one tries to write reasonably. La même justesse d'esprit qui nous fait écrire de bonnes choses nous fait appréhender qu'elles ne le soient pas assez pour mériter d'être lues. Un esprit médiocre croit écrire divinement; un bon esprit croit écrire raisonnablement. - La Bruyère, Characters, On Writing, Aphorism 18 
Orléans, where La Bruyère studied law as a young man.
It is a way for us to somehow add to beautiful actions, to praise them with a sincere heart. C'est en quelque sorte se donner part aux belles actions, que de les louer de bon coeur. - La Rochefoucauld, Maxims, aphorism 432  Madame de Sévigné, the famous letter writer. She was with La Rochefoucauld near his death, when he was 67 years old; she says: "... his disposition and resignation are worthy of admiration... he talks of his illness and death as if it were that of a neighbor, and sees the near approach of the end of his life with perfect calmness..." Unimaginative people save themselves from their lives by talking a lot. La ressource de ceux qui n'imaginent pas est de conter. - Vauvenargues, from Maxims and Thoughts
People intentionally display vices that are successful, but if certain pardonable weaknesses are discovered, they feel overwhemingly embarrassed. On affiche des vices effectifs; et si de certaines faiblesses pardonnables venaient à paraître, on s'en trouverait accablé. - Vauvenargues, from Advice to a Young Man, On Our False Judgment of Things 
Plutarch, who Vauvenargues read throughout his childhood and had great admiration for.
With virtue, ability, and good conduct, a person can still be unbearable. Manners, which people neglect as something small, are often what make others decide for or against you: a light attention to being sweet and polished prevents their bad judgments. So little can make people think you are proud, uncivil, scornful, or inconsiderate: it takes even less to make them conclude the contrary. Avec de la vertu, de la capacité, et une bonne conduite, l' on peut être insupportable. Les manières, que l'on néglige comme de petites choses, sont souvent ce qui fait que les hommes décident de vous en bien ou en mal: une légere attention à les avoir douces et polies prévient leurs mauvais jugements. Il ne faut presque rien pour être cru fier, incivil, méprisant, désobligeant: il faut encore moins pour être estimé tout le contraire. - La Bruyère, Characters, On Society and Conversation, Aphorism 31  Theophrastus: Aristotle chose him as his successor in running the school he founded, the Lyceum. La Bruyère first published his own aphorisms as an appendix to his translation of Theophrastus' character sketches. I consider an honest man someone who feels refreshed when he hears of a good deed, and a dishonest man someone who raises frivolous objections to it. This is a phrase of M. de Mairan. J'appelle un honnête homme celui à qui le récit d'une bonne action rafraîchit le sang, et un malhonnête celui qui cherche chicane à une bonne action. C' est un mot de M. de Mairan. - Chamfort, Caractères et Anecdotes, aphorism 1159 
M. de Mairan: a geophysicist, astronomer, and chronobiologist who was the first to study circadian rhythms.
True eloquence consists in saying everything that is necessary and only what is necessary. La véritable éloquence consiste à dire tout ce qu'il faut, et à ne dire que ce qu'il faut. - La Rochefoucauld, Maximes et Réflexions diverses, aphorism 250 
Madame de La Fayette (1634-1693), a close friend of La Rochefoucauld from 1655 to 1680. She said of him, "M. de La Rochefoucauld gave me esprit, but I reformed his heart." (« M. de La Rochefoucauld m’a donné de l’esprit, mais j’ai réformé son cœur. »)
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