Today there are no more irreconcilable enmities, because there are no more disinterested emotions: that's a good thing born from a bad thing.

What a man knows only through feeling can be explained only through enthusiasm.

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.

Words, like glasses, obscure everything they do not make clear. Before using a fine word, make a place for it.

Remorse is the punishment of crime; repentance, its expiation. The former appertains to a tormented conscience; the latter to a soul changed for the better.

Without duty, life is soft and boneless.

A thought is a thing as real as a cannonball.