Maxims are to the intellect what laws are to actions; they do not enlighten, but they guide and direct, and, although themselves blind, are protective.

What can one possibly introduce into a mind that is already full, and full of itself?

The idea of the nest in the bird's mind, where does it come from?

All disputation makes the mind deaf; and when people are deaf, I am dumb.

Poetry is to be found nowhere unless we carry it within us.

I love prudence very little, if it is not moral.

If fortune wishes to make a man estimable, she gives him virtues; if she wishes to make him esteemed, she gives him success.