The events we most desire do not happen; or, if they do, it is neither in the time nor in the circumstances when they would have given us extreme pleasure.

To what excesses do men rush for the sake of religion, of whose truth they are so little persuaded, and to whose precepts they pay so little regard!

Such a great misfortune, not to be able to be alone.

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.

The most delicate, the most sensible of all pleasures, consists in promoting the pleasure of others.

It is virtue which should determine us in the choice of our friends, without inquiring into their good or evil fortune.

Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.