All the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.

I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.

The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

All is a miracle. The stupendous order of nature, the revolution of a hundred millions of worlds around a million of stars, the activity of light, the life of all animals, all are grand and perpetual miracles.

You see, Mademoiselle, I have experience, I know the world. To pass the time, why don't you ask every passenger to tell you his life's story? And if there is a single one among them who has never cursed his life, who has not often told himself that he was the unhappiest of men, then you may throw me overboard, headfirst!

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us