“The best plan is to profit by the folly of others.”

Man naturally yearns for novelty.

In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.

I would have a man generous to his country, his neighbors, his kindred, his friends, and most of all his poor friends. Not like some who are most lavish with those who are able to give most of them.

Now, that the sovereign power and deity, whatsoever it is, should have regard of mankind, is a toy and vanity worthy to be laughed at.

Human nature is fond of novelty.

Our youth and manhood are due to our country, but our declining years are due to ourselves.

I think it is the most beautiful and humane thing in the world, so to mingle gravity with pleasure that the one may not sink into melancholy, nor the other rise up into wantonness.

From the end spring new beginnings.

Envy always implies conscious inferiority wherever it resides.

Lust is an enemy to the purse, a foe to the person, a canker to the mind, a corrosive to the conscience, a weakness of the wit, a besotter of the senses, and finally, a mortal bane to all the body.

A god cannot procure death for himself, even if he wished it, which, so numerous are the evils of life, has been granted to man as our chief good.

The only thing man knows instinctively is how to weep.

Our civilization depends largely on paper.

Nature has given man no better thing than shortness of life.

The lust of avarice as so totally seized upon mankind that their wealth seems rather to possess them than they possess their wealth.

It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth.

Luxury goods are the only area in which it is possible to make luxury margins.

The great business of man is to improve his mind, and govern his manners; all other projects and pursuits, whether in our power to compass or not, are only amusements.

I think in business, you have to learn to be patient. Maybe I’m not very patient myself. But I think that I’ve learned the most is be able to wait for something and get it when it’s the right time.

What we do in our group is the opposite of the bad effects of globalization. We produce in Italy and in France and we sell to China, when usually it’s the opposite.

Become an expert in one fundamental area of your market or business, no one starts out as a generalist.

It is not enough to have a talented designer; the management must be inspired too. The creative process is very disorganised; the production process has to be very rational.

When I was working in my first job engineering construction, what I liked the most was working with architects and making buildings that had this creative side coming from the architect and that were making them a big success.

If you control your distribution, you control your image.