“Things forbidden have a secret charm.”

Cassius and Brutus were the more distinguished for that very circumstance that their portraits were absent.

The sciences throw an inexpressible grace over our compositions, even where they are not immediately concerned; as their effects are discernible where we least expect to find them.

A cowardly populace which will dare nothing beyond talk.

The sciences throw an inexpressible grace over our compositions, even where they are not immediately concerned; as their effects are discernible where we least expect to find them.

The gods are on the side of the stronger.

Christianity is a pestilent superstition.

Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards.

Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose.

Christianity is a pestilent superstition.

An honorable death is better than a dishonorable life.

A woman once fallen will shrink from no impropriety.

Indeed, the crowning proof of their valour and their strength is that they keep up their superiority without harm to others.

It is the nature of the human disposition to hate him whom you have injured.

Reason and calm judgment, the qualities specially belonging to a leader.

We extol ancient things, regardless of our own times. [Lat., Vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.]

The powerful hold in deep remembrance an ill-timed pleasantry. [Lat., Facetiarum apud praepotentes in longum memoria est.]

The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or joy.

It made me perfectly happy with my own company and perhaps was good conditioning for the protracted solitude of writing books as slowly as I do.

The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in atime of pain or of joy.

I’m still happy with the way Einstein’s Dreams came out. That book came out of a single inspiration. I really felt like I was not creating the words, that I was hearing the words.

I gotta keep busy. I’m not happy unless I’m working on two, three things.

There are two things that I get a lot of pleasure from in my life, and that is, doing what I know how to do well – that really makes me happy.

I’m not “happy” but I’m not unhappy about it.

You want to have fun but you also want to work well. Sometimes I was quite happy at Ferrari, because we would have fun, but then they could not stop having fun and go back to the real work.