We read for instruction, for correction, and for consolation.
God has neither form nor shape under which we can know Him; when he speaks of Himself in metaphors and similes, He is adapting Himself to our foolishness, our limited capacity.
Ignorance is not innocence.
You should be more afraid of a stupid man than of an evil one.
As you know, no one over thirty years of age is afraid of tittle-tattle. I myself find it much less difficult to strangle a man than to fear him.
Life is too short to be able to love as one should.
It would not be difficult to be a better ruler than I was: for I admit that I ruled badly; and even if I was fortunate enough to satisfy my subjects, I was not fortunate enough to satisfy myself.
It is a far greater happiness to obey no one than to rule the whole world.
It is quite as ignominious to allow oneself to be deceived as to deceive.
I was born, have lived, and will die free.
There is a star above us which unites souls of the first order, though worlds and ages separate them.
Nuns and married women are equally unhappy, if in different ways.
I love men, not because they are men, but because they are not women.
Dignity is like a perfume; those who use it are scarcely conscious of it.
Great armies are nothing but a collection of weakness.
Other things titillate me more keenly than the pale pleasures of marriage.
One can really love only once.
There are few prisoners more closely guarded than princes.
Every man is his own worst enemy.
To some people everything is permitted.