It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.
Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes.
Fear follows crime and is its punishment.
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.
We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.
Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.
We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.
The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.
Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.
One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.
The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.
Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.
I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.
The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.
Such is the feebleness of humanity, such is its perversity, that doubtless it is better for it to be subject to all possible superstitions, as long as they are not murderous, than to live without religion.
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
