Indeed, there is no such thing as an altogether ugly woman — or altogether beautiful.

Socrates ... brought human wisdom back down from heaven, where she was wasting her time, and restored her to man.... It is impossible to go back further and lower. He did a great favor to human nature by showing how much it can do by itself.

Presumption is our natural and original malady. The most vulnerable and frail of all creatures is man, and at the same time the most arrogant.

A woman is no sooner ours than we are no longer hers.

There is more ado to interpret interpretations than to interpret things, and more books upon books than upon any other subject; we do nothing but comment upon one another. Every place swarms with commentaries; of authors there is great scarcity.

The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear.

Virtue can have naught to do with ease. . . . It craves a steep and thorny path.