In a country where everyone strives for attention, it is better to be bankrupt than to be nothing.

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.

The philosopher who would fain extinguish his passions resembles the chemist who would like to let his furnace go out.

Society is divided into two classes, the shearers and the shorn.

Calumny is like the wasp which worries you, and which it is not best to try to get rid of unless you are sure of slaying it; for otherwise it returns to the charge more furious than ever.

There is no history worthy attention save that of free nations; the history of nations under the sway of despotism is no more than a collection of anecdotes.

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