Science confounds everything; it gives to the flowers an animal appetite, and takes away from even the plants their chastity.

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.

Never cut what you can untie.

There is graciousness and a kind of urbanity in beginning with men by esteem and confidence. It proves, at least, that we have long lived in good company with others and with our selves.

Credulity forges more miracles than trickery could invent.

A fluent writer always seems more talented than he is. To write well, one needs a natural felicity and an acquired difficulty.

Haughty people seem to me to have, like the dwarfs, the stature of a child and the face of a man.