The wicked are always surprised to find that the good can be clever.

Great men undertake great things because they are great; fools, because they think them easy.

Reason and emotion counsel and supplement each other. Whoever heeds only the one, and puts aside the other, recklessly deprives himself of a portion of the aid granted us for the regulation of our conduct.

You can purchase the mind of Pascal for a crown. Pleasures even cheaper are sold to those who give themselves up to them. It is only luxuries and objects of caprice that are rare and difficult to obtain; unfortunately they are the only things that touch the curiosity and taste of ordinary men.

Hope animates the wise, and lures the presumptuous and indolent who repose inconsiderately on her promises.

Some authors regard morality in the same light as we regard modern architecture. Convenience is the first thing to be looked for.

If our friends do us a service, we think they owe it to us by their title of friend. We never think that they do not owe us their friendship.