Common sense is both more rare and more desirable in leaders than mere intelligence.

The Deluge: A punishment inflicted on the human race by an all-knowing God, who, through not having foreseen the wickedness of men, repented of having made them, and drowned them once for all to make them better - an act which, as we all know, was accompanied by the greatest success.

It requires twenty years for a man to rise from the vegetable state in which he is within his mother's womb, and from the pure animal state which is the lot of his early childhood, to the state when the maturity of reason begins to appear. It has required thirty centuries to learn a little about his structure. It would need eternity to learn something about his soul. It takes an instant to kill him.

To caress the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten away our heart.

I read only to please myself, and enjoy only what suits my taste.

The passions are the winds which fill the sails of the vessel; they sink it at times, but without them it would be impossible to make way.

We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.