Shame on all eloquence which leaves us with a taste for itself and not for its substance.

My art and profession is to live.

The dispersing and scattering our names into many mouths, we call making them more great.

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.

A good marriage (if any there be) refuses the conditions of love and endeavors to present those of amity.

The great and glorious masterpiece of men is to live to the point. All other things-to reign, to hoard, to build-are, at most, but inconsiderable props and appendages.

There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.