Everything since Homer has improved, except poetry.

The old man, especially if he is in society in the privacy of his thoughts, though he may protest the opposite, never stops believing that, through some singular exception of the universal rule, he can in some unknown and inexplicable way still make an impression on women.

Irresolute men are sometimes very persistent in their undertakings, because if they give up their designs they would have to make a second resolution.

He who doubts, knows - knows as much as can be known.

Men are ready to suffer anything from others or from heaven itself, provided that, when it comes to words, they are untouched.

The world laughs at things it would really prefer to admire, and like Aesop's fox it criticizes things it covets.

People are ridiculous only when they try or seem to be that which they are not.