The good, supreme, divine poetry is above the rules and reason. Whoever discerns its beauty with a firm, sedate gaze does not see it, any more than he sees the splendor of a lightning flash. It does not persuade our judgement, it ravishes and overwhelms it.

We took advantage of [the Indians'] ignorance and inexperience to incline them the more easily toward treachery, lewdness, avarice, and every sort of inhumanity and cruelty, after the example and pattern of our ways.

I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.

The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.

Oh, what a valiant faculty is hope.

Among the liberal arts, let us begin with the art that liberates us.

Kings and philosophers defecate, and so do ladies.