What one knows best is ... what one has learned not from books but as a result of books, through the reflections to which they have given rise.

There are more fools than wise men, and even in a wise man there is more folly than wisdom.

I have three kinds of friends: those who love me, those who pay no attention to me, and those who detest me.

Love is like epidemic diseases. The more one fears it the more likely one is to contract it.

There are two things that one must get used to or one will find life unendurable: the damages of time and injustices of men.

In love, everything is true, everything is false; it is the one subject on which one cannot express an absurdity.

There aren't many benefactors who don't say, like Satan: All these things will I give you if you bow down and worship me.