In order to do great things, it is necessary to live as if one was never to die.
If it is true that vice can never be done away with, the science of government consists of making it contribute to the public good.
Courage is adversity’s lamp.
We can console ourselves for not having great talents as we console ourselves for not having great places. We can be above both in our hearts.
Hope animates the wise, and lures the presumptuous and indolent who repose inconsiderately on her promises.
Hatred is keener than friendship, less keen than love.
A man who love only himself and his pleasures is vain, presumptuous, and wicked even from principle.
The character of false wit is that of appearing to depend only upon reason.
Wit does not take the place of knowledge.
As a house implies a builder, and a garment a weaver, and a door a carpenter, so does the existence of the Universe imply a Creator.
When we feel that we lack whatever is needed to secure someone else’s esteem, we are very close to hating him.
None are more liable to mistakes than those who act only on second thoughts.
To withdraw ourselves from the law of the strong, we have found ourselves obliged to submit to justice. Justice or might, we must choose between these two masters.
Every thought is new when an author expresses it in a manner peculiar to himself.
Glory fills the world with virtue, and, like a beneficent sun, covers the whole earth with flowers and with fruits.
Men are not to be judged by what they do not know, but by what they know, and by the manner in which they know it.
The favorites of fortune or of fame topple from their pedestals before our eyes without diverting us from ambition.
Great men in teaching weak men to reflect have set them on the road to error.
We can love with all our hearts those in whom we recognize great faults. It would be impertinent to believe that perfection alone has the right to please us; sometimes our weaknesses attach us to each other as much as our virtues.
It is unjust to exact that men shall do out of deference to our advice what they have no desire to do for themselves.