We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.- Voltaire
We are rarely proud when we are alone.
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.
Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.
Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.
To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.
To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
To hold a pen is to be at war.
To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.
