When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which they expose themselves I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.

Who can doubt that we exist only to love? Disguise it, in fact, as we will, we love without intermission... We live not a moment exempt from its influence.

Eloquence; it requires the pleasant and the real; but the pleasant must itself be drawn from the true.

It's not those who write the laws that have the greatest impact on society. It's those who write the songs.

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.

Let each of us examine his thoughts

Mediocrity makes the most of its native possessions.