"There are words agreeable to the eye (in the same way there are words agreeable to the ear). By a fortunate combination of the letters that form them or by the harmony of these letters. For each letter has its shape."

"In political institutions, almost everything we call an abuse was once a remedy."

"What is clear should not be drawn out too much. These useless explanations, these endless examinations are a kind of long whiteness and lead to boredom. It is the uniformity of a wall, of a long piece of laundry."

"Let anger pass, make a place for it; do not impede its progress; do not disturb its development, give it the time it needs to die out, open a wide path for it."

"Having found nothing worth more than emptiness, he leaves space vacant."

"When I had the strength, I did not have the patience. I have the patience today and I no longer have the power."

"In order to know men, something must be chanced. Who risks himself of nothing knows nothing."

"Fortunately, when he lacks reason he also lacks words."

"Anger, which purges resentment."

"To let the reader complete the symmetry between words and do no more than suggest it."

"In this painting of our life given to us by our memories, everything is moving and depends on our point of view."

"Let's go; and follow your mistake."

"Logic works, metaphysics contemplates."

"There is an infinity of things one does well only through necessity."

"The talkative person is one who speaks more than he thinks. Someone who thinks a great deal and talks a great deal is never considered a talkative person. The talkative man speaks from his mouth, the eloquent man speaks from his heart."

"Never the mind without the soul."

"The hordes of words that fill our books proclaim our ignorance, reveal the obscurities that flood our knowledge. If we were perfectly enlightened, our moral books would contain only maxims and our books on physics and spirituality would contain only axioms and facts. Everything else is clutter and shows no more than our gropings, our efforts, and our difficulties."

"He must not cultivate his friends, but cultivate his friendships within himself. They must be kept, cared for, watered."

"We always lose the friendship of those who lose our esteem."

"A work is perfectly finished only when nothing can be added to it and nothing taken away."

"Everything we can measure seems small."

"Tenderness is the repose of passion."

"Reason leads man back to his instincts."

"Whoever consults the light within himself (it is within everyone) excels at judging the object this light illumines."

"Animals love the people who talk to them."

"The great inconvenience of new books is that they prevent us from reading the old ones."

"Abuse of words, foundation of ideology."

"To be pathetic when we cry, we must cry without wanting to and without knowing it."

"The punishment of those who have loved women too much is to love them forever."

"Chastity enables the soul to breathe a pure air in the foulest places; continence makes her strong, no matter in what condition the body may be; her sway over the senses makes her queenly; her light and peace render her beautiful."

"Without fixed ideas, no fixed feelings. (Whoever has no constant opinions has no constant emotions.)"

"Properly speaking, man inhabits only his head and his heart. All other places are vainly before his eyes, at his sides, and under his feet: he himself is not there at all."

"I am like Montaigne: "unsuited to continuous discourse.""

"Wicked people have nothing human about them except passions: they are almost their virtues."

"All religions = all women."

"No, men are not born to know, but they are destined for it."

"Of those who want us to be wrong and those who want us to be right."

"The truth! Only God sees it."

"When the last word is always the one that offers itself first, the work becomes difficult."

"Whoever does not see his friends in a good light loves them little. To see in a good light. — Whoever does not see in a good light is a bad painter, a bad friend, a bad lover. Whoever does not see in a good light has not been able to lift his mind up to what is there or his heart to what is good."

"Strength is not energy. Some writers have more muscles than talent."

"A stupid lie is one that can never make itself believed."

"During our youth, there is something in us that is better than ourselves, I mean better than our desires, our pleasures, our yieldings, and our inclinations. Our soul is good then, even though our intelligence and will are not."

"Maxims, because what is isolated can be seen better."

"Poetry of ideas."

"Few minds are spacious; few even have an empty place in them or can offer some vacant point. Almost all have narrow capacities and are filled by some knowledge that blocks them up. What a torture to talk to filled heads, that allow nothing from the outside to enter them! A good mind, in order to enjoy itself and allow itself to enjoy others, always keeps itself larger than its own thoughts. And in order to do this, this thoughts must be given a pliant form, must be easily folded and unfolded, so they are capable, finally, or maintaining a natural flexibility. All those short-sighted minds see clearly within their little ideas and see nothing in those of others; they are like those bad eyes that see from close range what is obscure and cannot perceive what is clear from afar. Night minds, minds of darkness."

"People of intelligence often treat business in the way ignorant people treat books: they understand nothing."

"What we say is similar to what we are."