Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive.

Malicious tongues spread their poison abroad and nothing here below is proof against them.

Reason is not what decides love.

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

No matter what everybody says, ultimately these things can harm us only by the way we react to them.

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.

Nearly all men die of their medicines, not of their diseases.