In short, no association or alliance can be happy or stable without me. People can't long tolerate a ruler, nor can a master his servant, a maid her mistress, a teacher his pupil, a friend his friend nor a wife her husband, a landlord his tenant, a soldier his comrade nor a party-goer his companion, unless they sometimes have illusions about each other, make use of flattery, and have the sense to turn a blind eye and sweeten life for themselves with the honey of folly.

Reflection is a flower of the mind, giving out wholesome fragrance; but revelry is the same flower, when rank and running to seed.

No one respects a talent that is concealed.

They may attack me with an army of six hundred syllogisms; and if I do not recant, they will proclaim me a heretic.

I am a citizen of the world, known to all and to all a stranger.

Frugality is a handsome income.

By identifying the new learning with heresy, you make orthodoxy synonymous with ignorance.