We must learn to endure what we cannot avoid. Our life is composed, like the harmony of the world, of contrary things, also of different tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, soft and loud. If a musician liked only one kind, what would he have to say?

It is not without good reason, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.

The thing I fear most is fear.

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 good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.

The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre.

Greatness of soul consists not so much in soaring high and in pressing forward, as in knowing how to adapt and limit oneself.