Our character is composed of our ideas and our feelings: and, since it has been proved that we give ourselves neither feelings nor ideas, our character does not depend on us. If it did depend on us, there is nobody who would not be perfect. If one does not reflect, one thinks oneself master of everything; but when one does reflect, one realizes that one is master of nothing

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

Shakespeare is a drunken savage with some imagination whose plays please only in London and Canada.

Wine is the divine juice of September.

We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.

I loved him as we always love the first time: with idolatry and wild passion.

It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.