I never rebel so much against France as not to regard Paris with a friendly eye; she has had my heart since my childhood... I love her tenderly, even to her warts and her spots. I am French only by this great city: the glory of France, and one of the noblest ornaments of the world.

All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.

Life itself is neither a good nor an evil: life is where good or evil find a place, depending on how you make it for them.

It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. A spirited mind never stops within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its strength.

Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for gain; and some there are, and not the worst, who seek no other profit than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the life of other people in order to judge and regulate their own.

Virtue shuns ease as a companion. It demands a rough and thorny path.

Wisdom has its excesses, and has no less need of moderation than folly.