“It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.”

It is no use running; to set out betimes is the main point.

I bend and do not break.

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.

The more wary you are of danger, the more likely you are to meet it.

We ought to consider the end in everything.

Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.

A mountain in labour shouted so loud that everyone, summoned by the noise, ran up expecting that she would be delivered of a city bigger than Paris; she brought forth a mouse.

We read on the foreheads of those who are surrounded by a foolish luxury, that fortune sells what she is thought to give.

Nothing is so oppressive as a secret: women find it difficult to keep one long; and I know a goodly number of men who are women in this regard.

To live lightheartedly but not recklessly; to be gay without being boisterous; to be courageous without being bold; to show trust and cheerful resignation without fatalism – this is the art of living.

Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value.

We heed no instincts but our own.

The best laid plot can injure its maker, and often a man’s perfidy will rebound on himself.

All the brains in the world are powerless against the sort of stupidity that is in fashion.

If you deal with a fox, think of his tricks.

Still people are dangerous.

The truth cannot be deceptive, and one who sees it cannot be deceived.