Virtue is not a thing you can have by halves; it is or it is not.

There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power.

Passions are no more forgiving than human laws and they reason more justly. Are they not based on a conscience of their own, infallible as an instinct?

Hope is a light diet, but very stimulating.

In love, what a woman mistakes for disgust is actually clearsightedness. If she does not admire a man, she scorns him.

The happier a man, the more apt he is to tremble. In hearts exclusively tender, anxiety and jealousy are in exact proportion to happiness.

Despotism accomplishes great things illegally; liberty doesn't even go to the trouble of accomplishing small things legally.