The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.
He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.
My life is a struggle.
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.
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
All men are born with a nose and five fingers, but no one is born with a knowledge of God.
Fear follows crime and is its punishment.
The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.
Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him.
The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.
Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
All styles are good except the tiresome kind.
It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.
To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.
Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
Nature has always had more force than education.
The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
Tears are the silent language of grief.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
It is not known precisely where angels dwell whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we should be informed of their abode.
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.