Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this, and you who read this.

Description of man: dependence, longing for independence, need.

Force rules the world-not opinion; but it is opinion that makes use of force.

That we must love one God only is a thing so evident that it does not require miracles to prove it.

Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him.

No one is discontented at not being a king except a discrowned king ... unhappiness almost invariably indicates the existence of a road not taken, a talent undeveloped, a self not recognized.

There are people who lie simply for the sake of lying.