I have loved women even to madness, but I have always loved liberty better.

I have often met with happiness after some imprudent step which ought to have brought ruin upon me, and although passing a vote of censure upon myself I would thank God for his mercy.

The same principle that forbids me to lie does not allow me to tell the truth.

Worthy or not, my life is my subject, and my subject is my life.

I will begin with this confession: whatever I have done in the course of my life, whether it be good or evil, has been done freely; I am a free agent.

We ourselve are the authors of almost all our woes and griefs, of which we so unreasonably complain.

The philosopher is a person who refuses no pleasures which do not produce greater sorrows, and who knows how to create new ones.