The happiest is he who suffers least; the most miserable is he who enjoys least.

Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.

Do not base your life on the judgments of others; first, because they are as likely to be mistaken as you are, and further, because you cannot know that they are telling you their true thoughts.

I hate books; they only teach people to talk about what they don't understand.

To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written.

Let it not, therefore, be said that the Sovereign is not subject to the laws of his State; since the contrary is a true proposition of the right of nations, which flattery has sometimes attacked but good princes have always defended as the tutelary divinity of their dominions. How much more legitimate is it to say with the wise Plato, that the perfect felicity of a kingdom consists in the obedience of subjects to their prince, and of the prince to the laws, and in the laws being just and constantly directed to the public good!

It is in man's heart that the life of nature's spectacle exists; to see it, one must feel it.