Spero Speroni explains admirably how an author who writes very clearly for himself is often obscure to his readers. "It is," he says, "because the author proceeds from the thought to the expression, and the reader from the expression to the thought.

Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.

Slander is the balm of malignity.

Public opinion is the worst of all opinions.

There some trifles well habited, as there are some fools well clothed.

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

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