The easy, gentle, and sloping path . . . is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.

There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

There are no truths, only moments of claryty passing for answers.

Man is the sole animal whose nudities offend his own companions, and the only one who, in his natural actions, withdraws and hides himself from his own kind.

There is power in ambition, pleasure in luxury...but envy can gain nothing but vexation.

I see men ordinarily more eager to discover a reason for things than to find out whether the things are so.

What enriches language is its being handled and exploited by beautiful minds-not so much by making innovations as by expanding it through more vigorous and varied applications, by extending it and deploying it. It is not words that they contribute: what they do is enrich their words, deepen their meanings and tie down their usage; they teach it unaccustomed rhythms, prudently though and with ingenuity.