This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.

In France every man is either an anvil or a hammer; he is a beater or must be beaten.

What would constitute useful history? That which should teach us our duties and our rights, without appearing to teach them.

Whosoever does not know how to recognize the faults of great men is incapable of estimating their perfections.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

A physician is an unfortunate gentleman who is every day required to perform a miracle; namely to reconcile health with intemperance.

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.