The vanity of others runs counter to our taste only when it runs counter to our vanity.

The object of convalescence ought to be to turn our attention to life: at other times, simply to our tasks!

When we have to change our mind about a person, we hold the inconvenience he causes us very much against him.

Everyone carries within himself an image of womanliness derived from his mother: it is this that determines whether, on the whole,he will revere women, or despise them, or remain generally indifferent to them.

He who is dissatisfied with himself is continually ready for revenge and we others will be his victims, if only in having always to endure his ugly sight. For the sight of the ugly makes one bad and gloomy.

So far there has been no philosopher in whose hands philosophy has not grown into an apology for knowledge; on this point, at least, every one is an optimist, that the greatest usefulness must be ascribed to knowledge. They are all tyrannized over by logic, and this is optimism in its essence.

Love your enemies because they bring out the best in you.