Be happy without picking flaws.

His whole life was now summed up in two words: absolute uncertainty within an impenetrable fog.

Great blunders are often made, like large ropes, of a multitude of fibers. Take the cable thread by thread, take separately all the little determining motives, you break them one after another, and you say: that is all! Wind them and twist them together, they become an enormity.

Are you afraid of the good you might do?

The left-handed are precious; they take places which are inconvenient for the rest.

We would be ashamed of our best behavior if the people knew the motives of our behaving so.

Most commonly revolt is born of material circumstances; but insurrection is always a moral phenomenon. Revolt is Masaniello, who led the Neapolitan insurgents in 1647; but insurrection is Spartacus. Insurrection is a thing of the spirit, revolt is a thing of the stomach.