There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work.

Life at court does not satisfy a man, but it keeps him from being satisfied with anything else.

When we are dead we are praised by those who survive us, though we frequently have no other merit than that of being no longer alive.

The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.

When a work lifts your spirits and inspires bold and noble thoughts in you, do not look for any other standard to judge by: the work is good, the product of a master craftsman.

We should laugh before being happy, for fear of dying without having laughed.

Caprice in woman is the antidote to beauty.