A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant.

Luxury and excessive refinement are sure forerunners of the decadence of states, because when all individuals seek their own interests they neglect the public weal.

The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves.

The pleasure of love is in the loving; and there is more joy in the passion one feels than in that which one inspires.

The greatest part of our faults are more excusable than the methods that are commonly taken to conceal them.

Prudence and love are inconsistent; in proportion as the last increases, the other decreases.

One honor won is a surety for more.