Men fed upon carnage, and drinking strong drinks, have all an impoisoned and acrid blood which drives them mad in a hundred different ways.
Secret griefs are more cruel than public calamities.
The Pope is an idol whose hands are tied and whose feet are kissed.
What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
True power and true politeness are above vanity.
Custom, law bent my first years to the religion of the happy Muslims. I see it too clearly: the care taken of our childhood forms our feelings, our habits, our belief. By the Ganges I would have been a slave of the false gods, a Christian in Paris, a Muslim here.