It is a mania shared by philosophers of all ages to deny what exists and to explain what does not exist.

Our greatest evil flows from ourselves.

Girls must be thwarted early in life.

Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain.

The animals you eat are not those who devour others; you do not eat the carnivorous beasts, you take them as your pattern. You only hunger for the sweet and gentle creatures which harm no one, which follow you, serve you, and are devoured by you as the reward of their service.

At Genoa, the word Liberty may be read over the front of the prisons and on the chains of the galley-slaves. This application of the device is good and just. It is indeed only malefactors of all estates who prevent the citizen from being free. In the country in which all such men were in the galleys, the most perfect liberty would be enjoyed.

We pity in others only the those evils which we ourselves have experienced.