I admire the assurance and confidence everyone has in himself, whereas there is hardly anything I am sure I know or that I dare give my word I can do.

What a man hates, he takes seriously.

If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because it was I.

Obstinacy is the sister of constancy, at least in vigor and stability.

He whose mouth is out of taste says the wine is flat.

Kings and philosophers shit; and so do ladies.

Opinion is a powerful party, bold, and without measure.

The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.

Men ... are not agreed about any one thing, not even that heaven is over our heads.

How often, being moved under a false cause, if the person offending makes a good defense and presents us with a just excuse, are we angry against truth and innocence itself?