False modesty is the most decent of all lies.

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

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.

Tragedy has the great moral defect of giving too much importance to life and death.

In great matters, men behave as they are expected to; in little ones, as they would naturally

Anticipation leads the way to victory, and is the spur to conquest.

Most benefactors are like unskillful generals who take the city and leave the citadel intact.