If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier that other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are. you are comparing your lot with an ideal which is of course better and therefore you feel worse

An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.

The crime against nature will never make any great progress in society unless people are prompted to it by some particular custom.

The life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears.

Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it.

There are only two cases in which war is just: first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.

The laws do not take upon them to punish any other than overt acts.