Self love is the instrument of our preservation.

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

Faith consists in believing not what seems true, but what seems false to our understanding.

We have our arts, the ancients had theirs... We cannot raise obelisks a hundred feet high in a single piece, but our meridians are more exact.

Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.

Everything's fine today, that is our illusion.

But there must be some pleasure in condemning everything--in perceiving faults where others think they see beauties.' 'You mean there is pleasure in having no pleasure.