The idea which tyrants find most useful is the idea of God.

People who have been made to suffer by certain things cannot be reminded of them without a horror which paralyses every other pleasure, even that to be found in reading a story.

The only unhappiness is a life of boredom.

In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for in the future.

Conversationis like the table of contents of a dull book.... All the greatest subjects of human thought are proudly displayedin it. Listen to it for three minutes, and you ask yourself which is more striking, the emphasis of the speaker or his shocking ignorance.

One-half, the finest half, of life is hidden from the man who does not love with passion.

But, if I sample this pleasure so prudently and circumspectly, it will no longer be a pleasure.