No-one is exempt from speaking nonsense – the only misfortune is to do it solemnly.
There never were, in the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.
There is nothing so extreme that is not allowed by the custom of some nation or other.
A strong imagination begetteth opportunity.
There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.
Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.
Don’t discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved.
A man should ever be ready booted to take his journey.
A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom.
No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.
Kings and philosophers defecate, and so do ladies.
Ambition is not a vice of little people.
I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything, but catch nothing except wind.
The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold. The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbor creates a war betwixt princes.
The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced.
Obsession is the wellspring of genius and madness.
Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health.
If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.
In nine lifetimes, you’ll never know as much about your cat as your cat knows about you.
The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear, and with good reason; that passion alone, in the trouble of it, exceeding all other accidents.