One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us and whereto our passions transport us. But those which by long habit are rooted in a strong and anchored in a powerful will are not subject to contradiction. Repentance is but a denying of our will, and an opposition of our fantasies, which diverts us here and there.

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

No pleasure has any savor for me without communication.

There is no so wretched and coarse a soul wherein some particular faculty is not seen to shine.

Women are more susceptible to pain than to pleasure.

Other people do not see you at all, but guess at you by uncertain conjectures.

I cruelly hate cruelty, both by nature and reason, as the worst of all the vices. But then I am so soft in this that I cannot seea chicken's neck wrung without distress, and cannot bear to hear the squealing of a hare between the teeth of my hounds.