Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.

To how many blockheads of my time has a cold and taciturn demeanor procured the credit of prudence and capacity!

It has never occurred to me to wish for empire or royalty, nor for the eminence of those high and commanding fortunes. My aim lies not in that direction; I love myself too well.

Time steals away without any inconvenience.

I am further of opinion that it would be better for us to have [no laws] at all than to have them in so prodigious numbers as we have.

Great authors, when they write about causes, adduce not only those they think are true but also those they do not believe in, provided they have some originality and beauty. They speak truly and usefully enough if they speak ingeniously.

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.