The high opinions people have of the great and mighty is so blind, and their interest in their gestures, features, and manners so general, that if the mighty were only good, the devotion of the people to them would amount to worship.
Lucile prefers to waste his life as the protégé of a few aristocrats than to live on familiar terms with his peers.
It is advisable to say nothing of the mighty. If you speak well of them, it is flattery. It is dangerous to speak ill of them during their lifetime, and it is cowardly to do so after they are dead.
Life is short and annoying. We spend life wishing.
When life is wretched, it is hard to bear; when it is happy, it is dreadful to lose it. The one alternative is as bad as the other.
Death occurs only once, but makes itself felt at every moment of our life. It is more painful to fear it than to suffer it.
There are but three events for man: birth, life, and death. He does not realise his birth, he suffers when he dies, and he forgets to live.
We seek our happiness outside ourselves. We seek it in the opinions of men whom we know are flatterers, and who lack sincerity. What folly! Most men spend half their lives making the other half miserable.
It is easier for many men to acquire one thousand virtues than to get rid of one defect.
It is as difficult to find a conceited man who believes himself really happy as to discover a modest man who thinks himself too unhappy.