Pleasure once tasted satisfies less than the desire experienced for its torments.

When orators and auditors have the same prejudices, those prejudices run a great risk of being made to stand for incontestable truths.

Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes.

The folly which we might have ourselves committed is the one which we are least ready to pardon in another.

The city does not take away, neither does the country give, solitude; solitude is within us.

The chief cause of our misery is less the violence of our passions than the feebleness of our virtues.

The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable.