In science the new is an advance; but in morals, as contradicting our inner ideals and historic idols, it is ever a retrogression.
My existence was beginning to cause me serious concern. Was I a mere figment of the imagination?
There is no need for hell fire in hell. Hell is other people.
Nothing indicates the soundness of a man’s judgment so much as knowing how to choose between two disadvantages.
Most men only commit great crimes because of their scruples about petty ones.
The most mistrustful are often the greatest dupes.
The man who can own up to his error is greater than he who merely knows how to avoid making it.
Love is like those second-rate hotels where all the luxury is in the lobby.
Fish is meant to tempt as well as nourish, and everything that lives in water is seductive.
Man has the right to deal with his oppressors by devouring their palpitating hearts.
It is the height of stupidity to claim that men who for a thousand years have had the power to berate us, to fleece us and to oppress us with impunity, will now agree, with good grace, to be our equals.
Five or six hundred heads cut off would have assured your repose, freedom and happiness.
In a few days, I will have them all guillotined in Paris.
To form a truly free constitution, that’s to say, truly just and wise, the first point, the main point, the capital point, is that all the laws be agreed on by the people, after considered reflection, and especially having taken time to see what’s at stake...
How could liberty ever establish itself amongst us? Apart from a few tragic scenes, the revolution has been nothing but a web of farcical scenes.
It seems that the inevitable fate of man is never attain complete freedom: princes everywhere tend to despotism and the people to servitude.
When I hesitate, I do not paint. When I paint, I do not hesitate.
Being afraid is the worst sin there is.
Women over thirty are at their best, but men over thirty are too old to recognize it.
Charm is the ability to make others forget that you look as you do.
I may not be a pin-up, but I’m one hell of a boxer.