I question if Epicurus and Hume have done mankind a greater service by the looseness of their doctrines than by the purity of their lives. Of such men we may more justly exclaim, than of Caesar, "Confound their virtues, they've undone the world!

Habit will reconcile us to everything but change

Pleasure is to women what the sun is to the flower; if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, it refreshes, and it improves; if immoderately, it withers, deteriorates and destroys.

The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.

The hate which we all bear with the most Christian patience is the hate of those who envy us.

Logic and metaphysics make use of more tools than all the rest of the sciences put together, and do the least work.

When we are in the company of sensible men, we ought to be doubly cautious of talking too much, lest we lose two good things, their good opinion and our own improvement; for what we have to say we know, but what they have to say we know not.