It is easy to criticize an author, but difficult to appreciate him.

It is easy to criticize an author, but difficult to appreciate him.

To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.

We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.

Men crowd into honorable careers without other vocation than their vanity, or at best their love of fame.

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.

Men dissimulate their dearest, most constant, and most virtuous inclination from weakness and a fear of being condemned.