There is no such thing as an accident. What we call by that name is the effect of some cause which we do not see.

To really enjoy pleasures, you must know how to leave them.

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.

If God did not exist, he would have to be invented.

Every abuse ought to be reformed, unless the reform is more dangerous than the abuse itself.

Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one's country is to wish harm to one's neighbors.