Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Ignorance is not lack of intelligence, nor knowledge a proof of genius.
If people did not compliment one another there would be little society.
To execute great things, one should live as though one would never die.
We should expect the best and the worst of mankind, as from the weather.
The counsels of old age give light without heat, like the sun in winter.
You must maintain strength of body in order to preserve strength of mind.
When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, it should be rejected.
There does not exist a man sufficiently intelligent never to be tiresome.
We should expect the best and the worst from mankind as from the weather.
No one is more liable to make mistakes than he who acts only on reflexion.
To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.
Wicked people are always surprised to find ability in those that are good.
He who seeks fame by the practice of virtue asks only for what he deserves.
The character of false wit is that of appearing to depend only upon reason.
Despair puts the last touch not only to our misery but also to our weakness.
None are more liable to mistakes than those who act only on second thoughts.
Great men in teaching weak men to reflect have set them on the road to error.
We are dismayed when we find that even disaster cannot cure us of our faults.
Truth is not so threadbare as speech, because fewer people can make use of it.
All erroneous ideas would perish of their own accord if given clear expression.
In order to do great things, it is necessary to live as if one was never to die.
Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.
Every thought is new when an author expresses it in a manner peculiar to himself.
The heaviest object in the world is the body of the woman you have ceased to love.
We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.
The young suffer less from their own errors than from the cautiousness of the old.
Some of us would be greatly astonished to learn the reasons why others respect us.
A man can hardly be said to have made a fortune if he does not know how to enjoy it.
It is easier to say new things than to reconcile those which have already been said.
The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success.
Is it against justice or reason to love ourselves? And why is self-love always a vice?
Men despise great projects when they do not feel themselves capable of great successes.
If virtue were its own reward, it would no longer be a human quality, but supernatural.
The common excuse for those bringing misfortune on others is that they desire their good.
The usual pretext of those who make others unhappy is that they do it for their own good.
The shortness of life cannot dissuade us from its pleasures, nor console us for its pains.
The mind of man is more intuitive than logical, and comprehends more than it can coordinate.
Great men undertake great things because they are great; fools, because they think them easy.
We are less hurt by the contempt of fools than by the lukewarm approval of men of intelligence.
A man who love only himself and his pleasures is vain, presumptuous, and wicked even from principle.
It is sometimes easier to form a party than to attain by degrees the head of a party already formed.
There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anything.
Some are born to invent, others to embellish; but the gilder attracts more attention than the architect.
Men crowd into honorable careers without other vocation than their vanity, or at best their love of fame.
We discover in ourselves what others hide from us and we recognize in others what we hide from ourselves.
The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambition.
If passion sometimes counsels greater boldness than does reflection, it gives more strength to execute it.
Hope animates the wise, and lures the presumptuous and indolent who repose inconsiderately on her promises.
Whatever affection we have for our friends or relations, the happiness of others never suffices for our own.
We have neither the strength nor the opportunity to accomplish all the good and all the evil which we design.