Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.
Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.
The best is the enemy of the good.
It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.
Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.
In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.
The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.
Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same.
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.
Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal.
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
When men do not have healthy notions of the Divinity, false ideas supplant them, just as in bad times one uses counterfeit money when there is no good money.
He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.
By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.
Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say; but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work.