“The tree forsakes not the flower: the flower falls from the tree.”

Be kind. Aim for my heart.

In politics, my dear fellow, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas – no feelings, but interests; in politics we do not kill a man, we only remove an obstacle, that is all.

He’s right: They have to put madmen with madmen.

Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures.

Hatred is blind; rage carries you away; and he who pours out vengeance runs the risk of tasting a bitter draught.

A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself.

What a fool I was, not to tear my heart out on the day when I resolved to revenge myself!

We must never expect discretion in first love: it is accompanied by such excessive joy that unless the joy is allowed to overflow, it will choke you.

I came to Paris with four écus in my pocket, and I’d have fought with anybody who told me I was in no condition to buy the Louvre.

Unfortunates, who ought to begin with God, do not have any hope in him till they have exhausted all other means of deliverance.

Mastery of language affords one remarkable opportunities.

How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it.

For the happy man prayer is only a jumble of words, until the day when sorrow comes to explain to him the sublime language by means of which he speaks to God.

There are people who are willing to suffer and swallow their tears at leisure, and God will no doubt reward them in heaven for their resignation; but those who have the will to struggle strike back at fate in retaliation for the blows they receive.

Truly generous men are always ready to become sympathetic when their enemy’s misfortune surpasses the limits of their hatred.

The friends we have lost do not repose under the ground, they are buried deep in our hearts. It has been thus ordained that they may always accompany us.

Love may be likened to a disease in this respect, that when it is denied a vent in one part, it will certainly break out in another; hence what a woman’s lips often conceal, her eyes, her blushes, and many little involuntary actions betray.

Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect.

Long before morning I knew that what I was seeking to discover was a thing I’d always known. That all courage was a form of constancy. That it is always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals come easily.

Though we may not desire to detect fraud, we must not, on that account, endeavor to be insensible of it, for, as cunning is a crime, so is duplicity a fault, and if men dread knaves, they also despise fools.

The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.

Be sure that you are not deceiving yourself at any time about actual conditions.

They (low-minded) ones should never be trusted.

Do not put your trust in a bad companion nor even trust an ordinary friend, for if he should get angry with you, he may bring all your secrets to light.