just as the mistakes princes make are paid for by whole peoples, so the errors of great minds spread their malign influence over whole generations, even for hundreds of years, growing and proliferating until in the end they degenerate into monstrosities.

Of how many a man may it not be said that hope made a fool of him until he danced into the arms of death!

There is nothing to be got in the world anywhere; privation and pain pervade it, and boredom lies in wait at every corner for those who have escaped them. Moreover, wickedness usually reigns, and folly does all the talking. Fate is cruel, and human beings are pathetic.

Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but also a disruption of thought.

Every human perfection is allied to a defect into which it threatens to pass, but it is also true that every defect is allied to a perfection.

The bad thing about all religions is that, instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to conceal it.