You see, Mademoiselle, I have experience, I know the world. To pass the time, why don't you ask every passenger to tell you his life's story? And if there is a single one among them who has never cursed his life, who has not often told himself that he was the unhappiest of men, then you may throw me overboard, headfirst!

It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.

God has punished the knave, and the devil has drowned the rest.

Life is bristling with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one's garden.

Descartes constructed as noble a road of science, from the point at which he found geometry to that to which he carried it, as Newton himself did after him. ... He carried this spirit of geometry and invention into optics, which under him became a completely new art.

The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.