Since I would rather make of him an able man than a learned man, I would also urge that care be taken to choose a guide with a well-made rather than a well-filled head.

Ambition sufficiently plagues her proselytes, by keeping themselves always in show, like the statue of a public place.

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.

It is very easy to accuse a government of imperfection, for all mortal things are full of it.

It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one.

Judgement holds in me a magisterial seat, at least it carefully tries to. It lets my feelings go their way, both hatred and friendship, even the friendship I bear myself, without being changed and corrupted by them.

Man is quite insane. He wouldn?t know how to create a maggot, and he creates Gods by the dozen.