"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."

"I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise."

"I made this [letter] very long, because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter."

"To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher."

"Kind words don't cost much. Yet they accomplish much."

"You always admire what you really don't understand."

"People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive."

"When a man's stomach is full it makes no difference whether he is rich or poor."

"Fortune truly helps those who are of good judgment."

"God hates violence. He has ordained that all men fairly possess their property, not seize it."

"Events will take their course, it is no good of being angry at them; he is happiest who wisely turns them to the best account."

"No one who lives in error is free."

"Prosperity is full of friends."

"No one is happy all his life long."

"The greatest pleasure of life is love."

"Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish."

"But learn that to die is a debt we must all pay."

"I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world."

"Curiosity is only vanity. We usually only want to know something so that we can talk about it."

"Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it."

"Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back"

"When one does not love too much, one does not love enough."

"Dull minds are never either intuitive or mathematical."

"To ridicule philosophy is really to philosophize."

"The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first."

"Man's sensitivity to the little things and insensitivity to the greatest are the signs of a strange disorder."

"It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the truth."

"Joint undertakings stand a better chance when they benefit both sides."

"The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man."

"Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future."

"Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent."

"Luckier than one's neighbor, but still not happy."

"There is the sky, which is all men's together."

"Life has no blessing like a prudent friend."

"He was a wise man who originated the idea of God."

"Down on your knees, and thank heaven, fasting, for a good man's love."

"Authority is never without hate."

"In goodness there are all kinds of wisdom."

"There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change."

"No one is truly free, they are a slave to wealth, fortune, the law, or other people restraining them from acting according to their will."

"I loathe a friend whose gratitude grows old, a friend who takes his friend's prosperity but will not voyage with him in his grief"

"Leave no stone unturned."

"Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom."

"Do not plan for ventures before finishing what's at hand."

"Slight not what's near through aiming at what's far."

"The good and the wise lead quiet lives."

"The best of seers is he who guesses well."

"The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it."

"We are generally the better persuaded by the reasons we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others."

"Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself."