I have been a hundred times on the point of killing myself, but still was fond of life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our worst instincts. What can be more absurd than choosing to carry a burden that one really wants to throw to the ground? To detest, and yet to strive to preserve our existence? To caress the serpent that devours us, and hug him close to our bosoms till he has gnawed into our hearts?

A lady of honor may be raped once, but it strengthens her virtue.

The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

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

Time is man's most precious asset. All men neglect it; all regret the loss of it; nothing can be done without it.

What is called happiness is an abstract idea, composed of various ideas of pleasure; for he who has but a moment of pleasure is not a happy man, in like manner that a moment of grief constitutes not a miserable one.

We are intelligent beings: intelligent beings cannot have been formed by a crude, blind, insensible being: there is certainly some difference between the ideas of Newton and the dung of a mule. Newton's intelligence, therefore, came from another intelligence