Modern historians are all would-be philosophers; who, instead of relating facts as they occurred, give us their version, or rather perversions of them, always colored by their political prejudices, or distorted to establish some theory . . .

We are more prone to murmur at the punishment of our faults than to lament them.

People seem to lose all respect for the past; events succeed each other with such velocity that the most remarkable one of a few years gone by, is no more remembered than if centuries had closed over it.

Wit lives in the present, but genius survives the future.

Reason dissipates the illusions of life, but does not console us for their departure.

The vices of the rich and great are mistaken for error; and those of the poor and lowly, for crimes.

Calumny is the offspring of Envy.