No power can be maintained when it is only represented by hypocrites.

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.

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.

The value of a man can only be measured with regard to other men.

Among austere men intimacy involves shame--and is something precious.

That roguish and cheerful vice, politeness.

Writers ought to be regarded as wrongdoers who deserve to be acquitted or pardoned only in the rarest cases: that would be a way to keep books from getting out of hand.