Truth, such as is necessary to the reputation of life, is always found where it is honestly sought.

Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition: all have their cares, either from nature or from folly; and whoever, therefore, finds himself inclined to envy another, should remember that he knows not the real condition which he desires to obtain, but is certain that by indulging a vicious passion, he must lessen that happiness which he thinks already too sparingly bestowed.

No man is obliged to do as much as he can do. A man is to have part of his life to himself.

Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.

Read over your compositions and whenever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.

Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.