My errors will point to thinking men the various roads, and will teach them the great art of treading on the brink of the precipice without falling into it.

The thing is to dazzle

Desires are but pain and torment, and enjoyment is sweet because it delivers us from them.

In fact, to gull a fool seems to me an exploit worthy of a witty man.

Love is only a feeling of curiousity more or less intense, grafted upon the inclination placed in us by nature that the species may be preserved.

The mind of a human being is formed only of comparisons made in order to examine analogies, and therefore cannot precede the existence of memory.

Cheating is a sin, but honest cunning is simply prudence. It is a virtue. To be sure, it has a likeness to roguery, but that cannot be helped. He who has not learned to practice it is a fool.