One half of the children born die before their eighth year. This is nature's law; why try to contradict it?
Conscience is the voice of the soul; the passions are the voice of the body.
Innocence is ashamed of nothing.
Smell is the sense of memory and desire.
A man speaks of what he knows, a woman of what pleases her: the one requires knowledge, the other taste.
God makes all things good; man meddles with them and they become evil.
He who is the most slow in making a promise is the most faithful in the performance of it.
He who pretends to look upon death without fear, lies.
However great a man's natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.
Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.
Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding we are forced to obey it.