All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions.... This is the motive of every act of every man, including those who go and hang themselves.

We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves.

On the occasions when I have pondered over men's various activities, the dangers and worries they are exposed to at Court or at war, from which so many quarrels, passions, risky, often ill-conceived actions and so on are born, I have often said that man's unhappiness springs from one thing alone, his incapacity to stay quietly in one room.

The imagination disposes of everything. It creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are the whole of the world.

The multitude which does not reduce itself to unity is confusion.

If you believe in God you are at no disadvantage in this life, and at considerable advantage in the next. If you do not believe, but find in the next that there was a next, you are most unfortunate!

Man's greatness lies in his power of thought.