Necessity is a violent school-mistress.

No one should be subjected to force over things which belonged to him.

I may indeed very well happen to contradict myself; but truth, as Demades said, I do not contradict.

Whatever I may be, I want to be elsewhere than on paper. My art and my industry have been employed in making myself good for something; my studies, in teaching me to do, not to write. I have put all my efforts into forming my life. That is my trade and my work.

The world is but a school of inquisition; it is not who shall enter the ring, but who shall run the best courses.

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.

Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity.