The politics of courtiers resemble their shadows; they cringe and turn with the sun of the day.

Some delicate matters must be treated like pins, because if they are not seized by the right end, we get pricked.

The wonderful fortune of some writers deludes and leads to misery a great number of young people.

There is a proverb in the South that a woman laughs when she can, and weeps when she pleases.

It is almost impossible to find those who admire us entirely lacking in taste.

Our interests are grains of opium to our consciences, but they only put it to sleep for a terrible awakening.

It is not what we have but what we enjoy that constitutes our abundance.