There are vices which it is better to ignore than to punish.
One should not pronounce a word in public which an honest woman cannot
repeat.
I know no great men but those who have rendered great services to
humanity.
Honor has ever achieved greater things than interest.
Occupation and work are the only resources against misfortune.
My maxim is to fulfil all my duties to-day, because I am not sure of
living to-morrow.
Most men die before having lived.
It is necessary to combat nature and fortune till the last moment, and
to never despair till one is dead.
Work without disputing; it is the only way to render life supportable.
Passions are the winds that swell the sails of the ship. It is true,
they sometimes sink her, but without them she could not sail at all. The
bile makes us sick and choleric; but without the bile we could not live.
Everything in this world is dangerous, and yet everything in it is
necessary.
We should introduce into our existence all imaginable modes, and open
every door of the minds to all kinds of knowledge, and all sorts of
feelings. So long as it does not all go in pell-mell, there is room
enough for all.
It is the part of a man like you [Vauvenargues] to have preferences, but
no exclusions.
The unwise value every word in an author of repute.
Opinion governs the world, and philosophers in the long run govern
opinion.
We enjoin mankind to conquer their passions. Make the experiment of only
depriving a man, in the habit of taking it, of his pinch of snuff.
Do we not nearly all resemble the aged General of ninety years, who,
seeing some young fellows larking with the girls, said to them angrily:
"Gentlemen, is that the example which I give you?"
Passions are diseases. To cure a man of a criminal intention, we should
give him not counsel, but a dose of physic.
Women are like windmills, fixed while they revolve.
I fear lest marriage may not rather be one of the seven deadly sins than
one of the seven sacraments.
Divorce is probably of about the same date as marriage.