What a chimera then is man. What a novelty! What a monster... what a contradiction, what a prodigy

The property of power is to protect.

Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself.

How shall one who is so weak in his childhood become really strong when he grows older? We only change our fancies.

Voluptuousness, like justice, is blind, but that is the only resemblance between them.

When malice has reason on its side, it looks forth bravely, and displays that reason in all its luster. When austerity and self-denial have not realized true happiness, and the soul returns to the dictates of nature, the reaction is fearfully extravagant.