One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

Dogs, monkeys, and parrots are a thousand times less miserable than we are.

To announce truths is an infallible receipt for being persecuted.

What is called happiness is an abstract idea, composed of various ideas of pleasure; for he who has but a moment of pleasure is not a happy man, in like manner that a moment of grief constitutes not a miserable one.

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.

The pursuit of pleasure must be the goal of every rational person.

He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.