I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?

Is politics nothing other than the art of deliberately lying?

The abuse of grace is affectation, as the abuse of the sublime is absurdity; all perfection is nearly a fault.

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

You are very harsh.' 'I have seen the world.

I am the best-natured creature in the world, and yet I have already killed three, and of these three two were priests.

Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were of course exterminated.