When a soldier complains of his hard life (or a labourer, etc.) try giving him nothing to do.

If a soldier or labourer complain of the hardship of his lot, set him to do nothing.

Fashion is a tyrant from which nothing frees us. We must suit ourselves to its fantastic tastes. But being compelled to live under its foolish laws, the wise man is never the first to follow, nor the last to keep it.

It has pleased God that divine verities should not enter the heart through the understanding, but the understanding through the heart.

A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by touching both at once.

The last thing that we find in making a book is to know what we must put first.

Habit is a second nature, which destroys the first.