Our senses will not admit anything extreme. Too much noise confuses us, too much light dazzles us, too great distance or nearness prevents vision, too great prolixity or brevity weakens an argument, too much pleasure gives pain, too much accordance annoys.

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

Imagination cannot make fools wise, but it makes them happy, as against reason, which only makes its friends wretched: one covers them with glory, the other with shame.

I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.

I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

You corrupt religion either in favour of your friends, or against your enemies.

All of our miseries prove our greatness. They are the miseries of a dethroned monarch.