No one is more liable to make mistakes than he who acts only on reflexion.

If a man is endowed with a noble and courageous soul, if he is painstaking, proud, ambitious, without meanness, of a profound a deep-seated intelligence, I dare assert that he lacks nothing to be neglected by the great and men in high office, who fear, more than other men, those whom they cannot dominate.

The favorites of fortune or of fame topple from their pedestals before our eyes without diverting us from ambition.

A new principle is an inexhaustible source of new views.

It is of no use to possess a lively wit if it is not of the right proportion: the perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate.

If people did not compliment one another there would be little society.

We can console ourselves for not having great talents as we console ourselves for not having great places. We can be above both in our hearts.