Mortals are equal; their mask differs.

He was my equal in beauty, a paragon of grace and charm, sparkling with wit, and burning with love. I adored him to distraction, to the point of idolatry: I loved him as one can never love twice.

True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.

This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.

Twenty-volume folios will never make a revolution. It’s the little pocket pamphlets that are to be feared.

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.

It is fancy rather than taste which produces so many new fashions