Man's most valuable faculty is his imagination.

... in the history of the human mind there has never been a useful thought or a profound truth that has not found its century and admirers.

The more we know the better we forgive. Whoever feels deeply, feels for all who live.

If it were not for respect for human opinions, I would not open my window to see the Bay of Naples for the first time, whilst I would go five hundred leagues to talk with a man of genius whom I had not seen.

Men do not change; they unmask themselves.

The success of any man with any woman is apt to displease even his best friends.

[Ridicule] laughs at all those who see the earnestness of life and who still believe in true feelings and in serious thought ... It soils the hope of youth. Only shameless vice is above its reach.