Nature has no principles. She makes no distinction between good and evil.
What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!
The good critic is he who narrates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
Our passions are ourselves.
No government ought to be without censors and where the press is free, no one ever will. Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.
One must never lose time in vainly regretting the past or in complaining against the changes which cause us discomfort for change is the essence of life.
You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.
To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.
The poor have to labour in the face of the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.
Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.
That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.
I prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.
It is not customary to love what one has.
Time deals gently only with those who take it gently.
We do not know what to do with this short life, yet we want another which will be eternal.
I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves we must die to one life before we can enter another.