One must choose in life between boredom and suffering.

Only the refined and delicate pleasures that spring from research and education can build up barriers between different ranks.

Anyone who can see as far as tomorrow in politics arouses the wrath of people who can see no farther than today.

in Italy, almost at every step, history and poetry add to the graces of nature, sweeten the memory of the past, and seem to preserve it in eternal youth.

A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.

Divine Wisdom, intending to detain us some time on earth, has done well to cover with a veil the prospect of the life to come; for if our sight could clearly distinguish the opposite bank, who would remain on this tempestuous coast of time?

I must keep on rowing, not until I reach port but until I reach my grave.