The most spiritual human beings, assuming they are the most courageous, also experience by far the most painful tragedies: but it is precisely for this reason that they honor life, because it brings against them its most formidable weapons.

One is punished best for one's virtues.

Without passions you have no experience whatever.

The value of many men and books rests solely on their faculty for compelling all to seek out the most hidden and intimate things.

I love him who maketh his virtue his inclination and destiny: thus, for the sake of his virtue, he is willing to live on, or live no more.

Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes.

It is the business of the very few to be independent; it is a privilege of the strong.