Everything that happens, happens of necessity.

Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.

Will without intellect is the most vulgar and common thing in the world, possessed by every blockhead, who, in the gratification of his passions, shows the stuff of which he is made.

Genius is to other gifts what the carbuncle is to the precious stones. It sends forth its own light, whereas other stones only reflect borrowed light.

Human life, like all inferior goods, is covered on the outside with a false glitter; what suffers always conceals itself.

There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. ... The truth is that when an author begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader; because he writes under the pretext that he has something to say.

Every original idea is first ridiculed, then vigorously attacked, and finally taken for granted.