We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel.
We are rarely proud when we are alone.
Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.
Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.
It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part.
If there’s life on other planets, then the earth is the Universe’s insane asylum.
But in this country it is necessary, now and then, to put one admiral to death in order to inspire the others to fight.
The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.
Will is wish, and liberty is power.
In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.
The pursuit of pleasure must be the goal of every rational person.
All men are by nature free; you have therefore an undoubted liberty to depart whenever you please, but will have many and great difficulties to encounter in passing the frontiers.
Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.
If God did not exist, he would have to be invented. But all nature cries aloud that he does exist: that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it.
Martin in particular concluded that man was born to live either in the convulsions of misery, or in the lethargy of boredom.
Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.
I have chosen to be happy because it is good for my health.