I see this evident, that we willingly accord to piety only the services that flatter our passions.

One open way of speaking introduces another open way of speaking, and draws out discoveries, like wine and love.

When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never.

Necessity reconciles and brings men together; and this accidental connection afterward forms itself into laws.

Nothing else but an insatiate thirst of enjoying a greedily desired object.

Just as in habiliments it is a sign of weakness to wish to make oneself noticeable by some peculiar and unaccustomed fashion, so, in language, the quest for new-fangled phrases and little-known words comes from a puerile and pedantic ambition.

Tortures are a dangerous invention, and seem to be a test of endurance rather than of truth.