If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.

We must learn to endure what we cannot avoid. Our life is composed, like the harmony of the world, of contrary things, also of different tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, soft and loud. If a musician liked only one kind, what would he have to say?

The worth of the mind consisteth not in going high, but in marching orderly.

Our wisdom and deliberation for the most part follow the lead of chance.

I never rebel so much against France as not to regard Paris with a friendly eye; she has had my heart since my childhood... I love her tenderly, even to her warts and her spots. I am French only by this great city: the glory of France, and one of the noblest ornaments of the world.

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

I give my opinion not as being good, but as being my own.