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

Obscurity and Innocence, twin sisters, escape temptations which would pierce their gossamer armor, in contact with the world.

Where violence reigns, reason is weak.

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.

A man is not necessarily intelligent because he has plenty of ideas, any more than he is a good general because he has plenty of soldiers.

Contemptuous people are sure to be contemptible.

Scandal is an importunate wasp, against which we must make no movement unless we are quite sure that we can kill it; otherwise it will return to the attack more furious than ever.