The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little.

Every place swarms with commentaries; of authors there is great scarcity.

If love and ambition should be in equal balance, and come to jostle with equal force, I make no doubt but that the last would win the prize.

There are few things on which we can pass a sincere judgement, because there are few things in which we have not, in one way or another, a particular interest.

Amongst so many borrowed things, am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service.

One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us and whereto our passions transport us. But those which by long habit are rooted in a strong and anchored in a powerful will are not subject to contradiction. Repentance is but a denying of our will, and an opposition of our fantasies, which diverts us here and there.

The religion of my doctor or my lawyer cannot matter. That consideration has nothing in common with the functions of the friendship they owe me.