We are rarely proud when we are alone.

Give me a few minutes to talk away my face and I can seduce the Queen of France.

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.

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

Know that the secret of the arts is to correct nature.

God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart to the finest verses chanted by the wicked.

The sentiment of justice is so natural, and so universally acquired by all mankind, that it seems to be independent of all law, all party, all religion.