The finest souls are those that have the most variety and suppleness.

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

For table-talk, I prefer the pleasant and witty before the learned and the grave; in bed, beauty before goodness.

Nature clasps all her creatures in a universal embrace; there is not one of them which she has not plainly furnished with all means necessary to the conservation of its being.

Wisdom is a solid and entire building, of which every piece keeps its place and bears its mark.

If you want it to be so, history can be a waste of time; it can also be, if you want it to be so, a study bearing fruit beyond price.

Pleasure itself is painful at the bottom.