The most effective way of attacking vice is to expose it to public ridicule. People can put up with rebukes but they cannot bear being laughed at: they are prepared to be wicked but they dislike appearing ridiculous.

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.

The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.

They [zealots] would have everybody be as blind as themselves: to them, to be clear-sighted is libertinism.

Most people die from the remedy rather than from the illness.

I hate all men, the ones because they are mean and vicious, and the others for being complaisant with the vicious ones.

There's nothing people can't contrive to praise or condemn and find justification for doing so, according to their age and their inclinations.