No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.
Wisdom begins in wonder.
If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.
I hope that posterity will judge me kindly, not only as to the things which I have explained, but also to those which I have intentionally omitted so as to leave to others the pleasure of discovery.
Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies.
Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne'er loved them.
I have lived long enough to satisfy both nature and glory.
Love is not consolation. It is light.
I won't undertake war until I have tried all the arts and means of peace.
Life could be wonderful if people would leave you alone.
The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.
The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.
I bear a charmed life.
Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.
To correct a natural indifference I was placed half-way between misery and the sun. Misery kept me from believing that all was well under the sun, and the sun taught me that history wasn't everything.
To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.
I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.
Ah! yes, I know: those who see me rarely trust my word: I must look too intelligent to keep it.
As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
It is in the very nature of things human that every act that has once made its appearance and has been recorded in the history of mankind stays with mankind as a potentiality long after its actuality has become a thing of the past.
The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.
Our life is made by the death of others.
A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing.
Anyone entrusted with power will abuse it if not also animated with the love of truth and virtue, no matter whether he be a prince, or one of the people.
It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.
Love can no more continue without a constant motion than fire can and when once you take hope and fear away, you take from it its very life and being.
Religion is not a department of life it is something that enters into the whole of it.
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
Find quotes in french, in german, or in latin. Click on the translation icon.
