Experience teaches that a strong memory is generally joined to a weak judgment.

If ordinary people complain that I speak too much of myself, I complain that they do not even think of themselves.

There is nothing on which men are commonly more intent than on making a way for their opinions.

I enjoy books as misers enjoy treasures, because I know I can enjoy them whenever I please.

My trade and my art is living. He who forbids me to speak about it according to my sense, experience, and practice, let him orderthe architect to speak of buildings not according to himself but according to his neighbor; according to another man's knowledge, not according to his own.

Repentance is no other than a recanting of the will, and opposition to our fancies, which lead us which way they please.

Kings and philosophers defecate, and so do ladies.