The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.

At a distance, we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight.

Why not make an end of it all?... My life is a succession of griefs and bitter feelings.... What is death?... A very small matter,when all is said; only a fool would be concerned about it.

When a man leaves his mistress, he runs the risk of being betrayed two or three times daily.

Every true passion thinks only of itself.

To describe happiness is to diminish it.

Nothing is so hideous as an obsolete fashion.