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.
Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.
Non-violence is the article of faith.
Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.
Old men are dangerous: it doesn't matter to them what is going to happen to the world.
It is only the ignorant who despise education.
I speak the truth not so much as I would, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older.
Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster that devours everything: familiarity.
He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.
Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards.
Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.
Give a man health and a course to steer, and he'll never stop to trouble about whether he's happy or not.
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.
Even wisdom has to yield to self-interest.
Greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.
Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.
Art is the most beautiful deception of all. And although people try to incorporate the everyday events of life in it, we must hope that it will remain a deception lest it become a utilitarian thing, sad as a factory.
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