The philosopher is a person who refuses no pleasures which do not produce greater sorrows, and who knows how to create new ones.
lies, truth, loveI have always loved truth so passionately that I have often resorted to lying as a way of introducing it into the minds which were ignorant of it’s charms.
Hope is nothing but a deceitful flatterer accepted by reason only because it is often in need of palliatives.
If you have not done things worthy of being written about, at least write things worthy of being read.
As for myself, I always willingly acknowledge my own self as the principal cause of every good and of every evil which may befall me; therefore, I have always found myself capable of being my own pupil, and ready to love my teacher.
We ourselve are the authors of almost all our woes and griefs, of which we so unreasonably complain.
There is no such thing as destiny. We ourselves shape our lives.
Enjoy the present, bid defiance to the future, laugh at all those reasonable beings who exercise their reason to avoid the misfortunes which they fear, destroying at the same time the pleasure that they might enjoy.
From that moment our love became sad, and sadness is a disease which gives the death-blow to affection.
The man who seeks to educate himself must first read and then travel in order to correct what he has learned.
Desires are but pain and torment, and enjoyment is sweet because it delivers us from them.
The sweetest pleasures are those which are hardest to be won.
Love is a great poet its resources are inexhaustible but if the end it has in view is not obtained it feels weary and remains silent.
The longer you remain in Rome,’ said [Cardinal] S.C., ‘the smaller you will find it.
In the mean time I worship God, laying every wrong action under an interdict which I endeavour to respect, and I loathe the wicked without doing them any injury.
It is only necessary to have courage, for strength without self-confidence is useless.
I have often met with happiness after some imprudent step which ought to have brought ruin upon me, and although passing a vote of censure upon myself I would thank God for his mercy.
I have met with some of them – very honest fellows, who, with all their stupidity, had a kind of intelligence and an upright good sense, which cannot be the characteristics of fools.
I learned very early that our health is always impaired by some excess either of food or abstinence, and I never had any physician except myself.
I always made my food congenial to my constitution, and my health was always excellent.
I have had friends who have acted kindly towards me, and it has been my good fortune to have it in my power to give them substantial proofs of my gratitude.
The man who has sufficient power over himself to wait until his nature has recovered its even balance is the truly wise man, but such beings are seldom met with.
I know that I have lived because I have felt, and, feeling giving me the knowledge of my existence, I know likewise that I shall exist no more when I shall have ceased to feel.
For my future I have no concern, and as a true philosopher, I never would have any, for I know not what it may be: as a Christian, on the other hand, faith must believe without discussion, and the stronger it is, the more it keeps silent.
Heart and head are the constituent parts of character; temperament has almost nothing to do with it, and, therefore, character is dependent upon education, and is susceptible of being corrected and improved.