It is of no use to possess a lively wit if it is not of the right proportion: the perfection of a… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
If it is true that vice can never be done away with, the science of government consists of making it contribute to… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
If our friends do us a service, we think they owe it to us by their title of friend. We never think… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
In order to do great things, it is necessary to live as if one was never to die. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
A man can hardly be said to have made a fortune if he does not know how to enjoy it. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
If anyone accuses me of contradicting myself, I shall reply; I have been wrong once or more often, however I do not… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
If a man is endowed with a noble and courageous soul, if he is painstaking, proud, ambitious, without meanness, of a profound… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
All erroneous ideas would perish of their own accord if given clear expression. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
If passion sometimes counsels greater boldness than does reflection, it gives more strength to execute it. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
Vice foments war; it is virtue which actually fights. If there were no virtue, we would live in peace forever. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
The maxim that men are not to be praised before their death was invented by envy and too lightly adopted by philosophers.… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
If children had teachers for judgment and eloquence just as they have for languages, if their memory was exercised less than their… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
If virtue were its own reward, it would no longer be a human quality, but supernatural. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
As soon as an opinion becomes common it is sufficient reason for men to abandon it and to uphold the opposite opinion… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
The generality of men are so bound within the sphere of their circumstances that they have not even the courage to get… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
We are not greatly pleased that our friends should respect our good qualities if they venture to perceive our faults. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
It is in our own mind and not in exterior objects that we perceive most things; fools know scarcely anything because they… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
It is no great advantage to possess a quick wit, if it is not correct; the perfection is not speed but uniformity. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
Great men undertake great things because they are great; fools, because they think them easy. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
You must rouse into people's consciousness their own prudence and strength, if you want to raise their character. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
Excessive distrust is not less hurtfJul than its opposite. Most men become useless to him who is unwilling to risk being deceived. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anything. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
We are very wrong to think that some fault or other can exclude virtue, or to consider the alliance of good and evil as… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
Men are not to be judged by what they do not know, but by what they know, and by the manner in which they… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
Men dissimulate their dearest, most constant, and most virtuous inclination from weakness and a fear of being condemned. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
To withdraw ourselves from the law of the strong, we have found ourselves obliged to submit to justice. Justice or might, we must choose… — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
None are more liable to mistakes than those who act only on second thoughts. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
The mind is the soul's eye, not its source of power. That lies in the heart, in other words, in the passions. — Luc de Clapiers Copy Share Image
