If I can, I shall keep my death from saying anything that my life has not already said.

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.

I do not believe, from what I have been told about this people, that there is anything barbarous or savage about them, except that we all call barbarous anything that is contrary to our own habits.

Is there anything so grave and serious as an ass?

God is favorable to those whom he makes to die by degrees; 'tis the only benefit of old age. The last death will be so much the less painful: it will kill but a quarter of a man or but half a one at most.

Any person of honor chooses rather to lose his honor than to lose his conscience.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.