Reading nurtures the soul, and an enlightened friend brings it solace.

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.

A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do.

I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to men that the inventors of syllogisms. He who imagined a ship towers considerably above him who imagined innate ideas.

The mirror is a worthless invention. The only way to truly see yourself is in the reflection of someone else's eyes.

Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.

It is the poverty connected with our species which subordinates one man to another. It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.