The wisdom of providence is as much revealed in the rarity of genius, as in the circumstance that not everyone is deaf or blind.

To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation, namely an imitation of its opposite.

Everyone is perfectly willing to learn from unpleasant experience - if only the damage of the first lesson could be repaired.

Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.

The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders.

There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven.

We now possess four principles of morality: 1) a philosophical: do good for its own sake, out of respect for the law; 2) a religious: do good because it is God's will, out of love of God; 3) a human: do good because it will promote your happiness, out of self-love; 4) a political: do good because it will promote the welfare of the society of which you are a part, out of love of society having regard to yourself. But is this not all one single principle, only viewed from different sides?