For there is no air that men so greedily draw in, that diffuses itself so soon, and that penetrates so deep as that of license.

The religion of my doctor or my lawyer cannot matter. That consideration has nothing in common with the functions of the friendship they owe me.

The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe.

If my intentions were not to be read in my eyes and voice, I should not have survived so long without quarrels and without harm, seeing the indiscreet freedom with which I say, right or wrong, whatever comes into my head.

The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little.

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

It takes so much to be a king that he exists only as such. That extraneous glare that surrounds him hides him and conceals him from us; our sight breaks and is dissipated by it being filled and arrested by this strong light.