Hope is nothing but a deceitful flatterer accepted by reason only because it is often in need of palliatives.

Hatred, in the course of time, kills the unhappy wretch who delights in nursing it in his bosom.

I found that the writer who says SUBLATA LUCERNA NULLUM DISCRIMEN INTER MULIERES ('when the lamp is taken away, all women are alike') says true; but without love, this great business is a vile thing.

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

By recollecting the pleasures I have had formerly, I renew them, I enjoy them a second time, while I laugh at the remembrance of troubles now past, and which I no longer feel.

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

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.