“Whenever fortune wishes to joke, she lifts people from what is humble to the highest extremity of affairs.”

Some men make fortunes, but not to enjoy them for, blinded by avarice, they live to make fortunes.

Luxury is more deadly than any foe.

No one rejoices more in revenge than woman.

There is nothing worse than words of kindness that lie.

Who will watch the watchers?

Give up all hope of peace so long as your mother-in-law is alive.

It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty.

Dare to do things worthy of imprisonment if you mean to be of consequence.

Now we suffer the evils of a long peace; luxury more cruel than war broods over us and avenges a conquered world.

Bad men hate sin through fear of punishment; good men hate sin through their love of virtue.

If you are capable of submitting to insult you ought to be insulted.

Writing in the incurable itch that possesses many.

Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath a rough exterior.

All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.

It is but the weak and little mind that rejoices in revenge

The wise man sets bounds even to his innocent desires.

A person should be free to do as he likes in his own concerns; but he ought not to be free to do as he likes in acting for another, under the pretext that the affairs of the other are his own affairs.

All love affairs end. Eventually the girl is gonna put curlers in her hair.

Religion is the private affair of an individual…be present in the public domain, but state has to be clearly separated from religion.

In a totalitarian state, the state views any act of an individual to be political in nature. For example, the clothing that a person wears in a modern state is a private affair whereas in the Islamic Republic all women are forced to wear the hijab (Islamic attire).

I’ve had some wonderful love affairs and some that didn’t work out. I don’t want to dwell on that and I don’t want to put people down, but I think all the fabulous places I’ve been, the wonderful things that have happened for me, the great people I’ve met – that ought to make a story.

[Cultural department] understand nothing but bureaucratic daily affairs. They don’t care about culture.

Happiness is never a negative affair; it is to be won by men who are fully alive, full of the joy of living.

In the UK cycling was very popular until the end of the 1950’s but it really lost out to our love affair with the car.