Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.

We are all guilty of the good we did not do

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

Your destiny is that of a man, your vows those of a god.

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.

Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.

Almost all life depends on probabilities.