"Men attribute to chance those events of the causes of which they are ignorant. If they succeed in divining these causes, chance disappears. To say that a thing has happened by chance, is to say that we have not been able to foresee it. I do not myself believe that any other acceptation can be given to this word. What to an ignorant man is chance, cannot be chance to one better instructed."

"If Christianity were pruned of all which is not Christ, this religion would be the simplest in the world."

"According to the system of modern economists, it would be desirable that the government should interfere as little as possible in the commerce and industry of the country. Nevertheless we cannot deny that in certain circumstances this intervention is very useful."

"Taxes are regarded by economists as an evil, but as a necessary evil, since they provide for public expenses. Consequently, economists think that if the government possessed sufficient revenues, in domains for example, the suppression of all taxes would be a desirable measure."

"The decadence of the Greeks and Romans... proves the influence of institutions upon customs."

"To each conqueror can be said, when he has ceased tormenting our poor globe, "Would you not have been able to tilt equally well against a little globe of pasteboard?""

"The laws of war, do they say? As if war were not the destruction of all laws."

"What motives have influenced the writers who have rejected all religious systems? Is it the conviction that the ideas which they oppose are all injurious to society? Have they not rather included in the same proscription religion and the abuse of it?"

"War has been represented as necessary to prevent the too rapid increase of the population, but war mows down the flower of the young men, while it spares the men disgraced by nature. Hence it tends to the degeneration of the species."

"Taxes are a means of influencing production and commerce to give to them a direction which they would not naturally have taken. Such an influence may undoubtedly have disagreeable consequences if the taxes are imposed without discrimination or exclusively for a fiscal purpose, but it is entirely otherwise if wisdom and tact preside at their institution."

"I do not know why these two expressions, good sense and common sense, are confounded. There is nothing less common than good sense."

"The truly wise man is he who loves virtue for its own sake."

"The strain of suffering causes the mind to decay."

"We say that man is an egotist, and nevertheless his sweetest pleasures come to him through others. He only tastes them on condition of sharing them."

"The pleasures of self-love are the only ones that can really be turned into ridicule."

"It must be that all honest people are in the galleys; only knaves are to be met with elsewhere."

"Do nothing that all the world may not know."

"Men desire nothing so much as to make themselves envied."

"The belief in an all-powerful Being, who loves us and watches over us, gives to the mind great strength to endure misfortune."

"I rejoice for all the misfortunes which might have happened to me, and which I have escaped."

"Life is a short enough passage. I am half the journey. I will complete the remainder as I can."

"Love is almost the only passion that the good man may avow. It is the only one which accords with delicacy."

"Why try to be witty? I would rather be thought stupid and modest than witty and pretentious."

"Egotism is the most common and most hated of all vices. Properly speaking, it is the only one which should be hated."

"It may sometimes be necessary to yield the right, but how is one to recover it when wanted?"

"If one could continually satisfy his desires, he would never have time to desire. Happiness then is necessarily composed of alternatives. It could not exist at a constant level."

"Listen attentively to your interlocutor, and so prepare him to listen in the same way to your reply, and predispose him in favor of your arguments."

"Show neither passion nor weariness in discussion."

"Employ only expressions of the most perfect propriety."

"Speak little of what you know, and not at all of what you do not know."

"Speak to every one of that which he knows best. This will put him at his ease, and be profitable to you."

"Never direct an argument against any one. If you know some particulars against your adversary, you have a right to make him aware of it to keep him under control, but proceed with discretion, and do not wound him before others."

"Abstain from all pleasantry which could wound."

"Make intimate acquaintances only with much circumspection; perfect confidence in those who have been thoroughly tested. Nothing to do with others."

"No useless discourse. All conversation which does not serve to enlighten ourselves or others, to interest the heart or amuse the mind, is hurtful."

"Question thyself to learn what will please others."

"Self-possession without self-sufficiency. Courage without effrontery."

"When discussion degenerates into dispute, be silent; this is not to declare yourself beaten."

"Yield frequently to the first inspiration. Too much meditation on the same subject ends by suggesting the worst part, or at least causes loss of precious time."

"Suffer slight disagreeables without seeming to perceive them, but repulse decisively any one who evidently intends to injure or humiliate you."

"One should never feign a character that he has not, or affect a character that he cannot sustain."

"Adopt good habits when I change my method of life."

"Never turn to the past unless to enlighten the future. Regrets are useless."

"Vary the mental and bodily exercises with dancing, horsemanship, swimming, fencing with sword and with sabre, shooting with gun and pistol, skating, the sling, stilts, tennis, bowls; hop on one foot, cross the arms, jump high and far, turn on one foot propped against the wall, exercise in shirt in the evening to get up a perspiration before going to bed; turning, joinery, gardening, reading while walking, declamation, singing, violin, versification, musical composition; eight hours of sleep; a walk on awakening, before and after eating; great sobriety; eat slowly, little, and often; avoid idleness and useless meditation."

"The maximum of motive power resulting from the employment of steam is also the maximum of motive power realizable by any means whatever.1878"

"Carry when walking a book, and a note-book to preserve the ideas, and a piece of bread in order to prolong the walk if need be."

"Heat can evidently be a cause of motion only by virtue of the changes of volume or of form which it produces in bodies."

"Form resolutions in advance in order not to reflect during action. Then obey thyself blindly."