The one who acts is always without conscience; nobody has a conscience but the contemplative person.
One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.
Sound and sufficient reason falls, after all, to the share of but few men, and those few men exert their influence in silence.
Before you can do something, you must first be something.
The confidant of my vices is my master, though he were my valet.
All that is noble is in itself of a quiet nature, and appears to sleep until it is aroused and summoned forth by contrast.