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

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

Man is free; yet we must not suppose that he is at liberty to do everything he pleases, for he becomes a slave the moment he allows his actions to be ruled by passion.

They are the follies inherent to youth; I make sport of them, and, if you are kind, you will not yourself refuse them a good-natured smile.

There is no such thing as a perfectly happy or perfectly unhappy man in the world. One has more happiness in his life and another more unhappiness, and the same circumstance may produce widely different effects on individuals of different temperaments.

Praise the beautiful for their intelligence and the intelligent for their beauty.

From that moment our love became sad, and sadness is a disease which gives the death-blow to affection.