Most of those who make collections of verse or epigram are like men eating cherries or oysters: they choose out the best at first, and end by eating all.
It is commonly supposed that the art of pleasing is a wonderful aid in the pursuit of fortune; but the art of being bored is infinitely more successful.
If it wasn’t for me, I’d do brilliantly.
All that I’ve learned, I’ve forgotten. The little that I still know, I’ve guessed.
A man should swallow a toad every morning to be sure of not meeting with anything more revolting in the day ahead.
It is with happiness as with watches: the less complicated, the less easily deranged.
Remorse turns us against ourselves.
A lover is a man who tries to be more amiable than it is possible for him to be.
How many fools does it take to make up a public?
Man reaches each stage of his life as a novice.
Woman’s weakness, not man’s merit, oftenest gains the suitor’s victory.
A woman is like your shadow; follow her, she flies; fly from her, she follows.
We must start human society from scratch; as Francis Bacon said, we must recreate human understanding.
Running a house should be left to innkeepers.
Love, a pleasant folly; ambition, a serious stupidity.
To enjoy and give enjoyment, without injury to yourself or others; this is true morality.
The majority of the books of our time give one the impression of having been manufactured in a day out of books read the day before.
Secrecy is best taught by starting with ourselves.
One can be certain that every generally held idea, every received notion, will be idiocy because it has been able to appeal to the majority.
The person is always happy who is in the presence of something they cannot know in full. A person as advanced far in the study of morals who has mastered the difference between pride and vanity.