Nobody is exempt from saying stupid things, the harm is to do it presumptuously.

Decency, not to dare to do that in public which it is decent enough to do in private.

Nature should have been pleased to have made this age miserable, without making it also ridiculous.

If I am to serve as an instrument of deceit, at least let it be with a clear conscience. I do not want to be considered either so affectionate or so loyal a servant as to be found fit to betray anyone.

I consider it equal injustice to set our heart against natural pleasures and to set our heart too much on them. We should neither pursue them, nor flee them; we should accept them.

Is there a polity better ordered, the offices better distributed, and more inviolably observed and maintained, than that of bees?

I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.