Desire and hope will push us on toward the future.
No wind favors he who has no destined port.
And I loathe people who find it harder to put up with a gown askew than with a soul askew and who judge a man by his bow, his bearing and his boots.
Since we cannot match it let us take our revenge by abusing it.
The art of dining well is no slight art, the pleasure no slight pleasure.
It is very easy to accuse a government of imperfection, for all mortal things are full of it.
Reason has so many forms that we do not know which to choose-Experiment has no fewer.
A person is bound to lose when he talks about himself; if he belittles himself, he is believed; if he praises himself, he isn’t believed.
Socrates thought and so do I that the wisest theory about the gods is no theory at all.
Example is a bright looking-glass, universal and for all shapes to look into.
My reason is not framed to bend or stoop: my knees are.
I do not teach. I relate.
I have often seen people uncivil by too much civility, and tiresome in their courtesy.
Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society.
Wisdom is a solid and entire building, of which every piece keeps its place and bears its mark.
The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.
Obstinacy and dogmatism are the surest signs of stupidity. Is there anything more confident, resolute, disdainful, grave and serious than an ass?
It is not without good reason, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.
No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living, but that ten times in his life he might not lawfully be hanged.
Cowardice is the mother of cruelty.