There is nothing more difficult to find than oneself.

The three-o'-clock in the morning courage, which Bonaparte thought was the rarest.

Summer passes into autumn in some unimaginable point of time, like the turning of a leaf.

You may raise enough money to tunnel a mountain, but you cannot raise money enough to hire a man who is minding his own business.

There are secret articles in our treaties with the gods, of more importance than all the rest, which the historian can never know.

The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? You may say the wisest thing you can, old man, - you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind, - I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that.

What recommends commerce to me is its enterprise and bravery. It does not clasp its hands and pray to Jupiter.