At the sight of what goes on in the world, the most misanthropic of men must end by being amused, and Heraclitus must die laughing.

Some things are easier to legalize than to legitimate.

All passions exaggerate; and they are passions only because they do exaggerate.

Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.

The new friends whom we make after attaining a certain age and by whom we would fain replace those whom we have lost, are to our old friends what glass eyes, false teeth and wooden legs are to real eyes, natrual teeth and legs of flesh and bone.

In the fine arts, as in many other things, we know well only what we have not learned.

Bachelors' wives and old maids' children are always perfect.