“It is a strange enterprise to make respectable people laugh.”

The public scandal is what constitutes the offence: sins sinned in secret are no sins at all.

I would like to be like my father and all the rest of my ancestors who never married.

The road is a long one from the projection of a thing to its accomplishment.

The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.

At least it’s better to be married than to be dead.

Most people die from the remedy rather than from the illness.

I have a heart to love all the world; and like Alexander I wish there were yet other worlds, so I could carry even further my amorous conquests.

The smallest errors are always the best.

As the purpose of comedy is to correct the vices of men, I see no reason why anyone should be exempt.

Gold is the key, whatever else we try; and that sweet metal aids the conqueror in every case, in love as well as war.

Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.

Of all follies there is none greater than wanting to make the world a better place.

It is the public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all.

One is easily fooled by that which one loves.

To marry a fool is to be no fool.

There is no rampart that will hold out against malice.