It is inconceivable how much wit it requires to avoid being ridiculous.

An author is often obscure to the reader because they proceed from the thought to expression than like the reader from the expression to the thought.

It is with happiness as with watches: the less complicated, the less easily deranged.

Most of those who make collections of verse or epigram are like men eating cherries or oysters: they choose out the best at first, and end by eating all.

It is when their age of passions is past that great men produce their masterpieces, just as it is after volcanic eruptions that the soil is most fertile.

Contact with the world either breaks or hardens the heart.

His passions make man live, his wisdom merely makes him last.