The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because there is nothing to be gained by him.

What is history? The lie that everyone agrees on.

How inexpressible is the meanness of being a hypocrite! how horrible is it to be a mischievous and malignant hypocrite.

Descartes constructed as noble a road of science, from the point at which he found geometry to that to which he carried it, as Newton himself did after him. ... He carried this spirit of geometry and invention into optics, which under him became a completely new art.

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