I read these words which are the sum of all moral philosophy, and which cut short all the disputes of the casuists: When in doubt if an action is good or bad, refrain.

I envy animals for two things - their ignorance of evil to come, and their ignorance of what is said about them.

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.

There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics. ... We repeat, there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer.

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

All the ancient histories, as one of our wits say, are just fables that have been agreed upon

It is not a mistress I have lost but half of myself, a soul for which my soul seems to have been made.