Truly man is a marvelously vain, diverse, and undulating object. It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgment on him.

There is no course of life so weak and sottish as that which is managed by order, method, and discipline.

I see this evident, that we willingly accord to piety only the services that flatter our passions.

We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void.

Were I to live my life over again, I should live it just as I have done. I neither complain of the past, nor do I fear the future.

I do not correct my first imaginings by my second--well, yes, perhaps a word or so, but only to vary, not to delete. I want to represent the course of my humors and I want people to see each part at its birth.

Indeed, there is no such thing as an altogether ugly woman — or altogether beautiful.