The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and make the most ...
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Men sometimes feel injured by praise because it assigns a limit to their merit; few people are modes...
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES If people did not compliment one another there would be little society.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Of all pleasures the fruit of labor is the sweetest.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES You are not born for fame if you don't know the value of time.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES All grand thoughts come from the heart.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Clarity is the counterbalance of profound thoughts.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Great thoughts always come from the heart.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES The art of pleasing is the art of deception.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES The law cannot equalize mankind in spite of nature.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Most people grow old within a small circle of ideas, which they have not discovered for themselves. ...
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES The idle always have a mind to do something.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Lazy people are always anxious to be doing something.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES You must rouse into people's consciousness their own prudence and strength, if you want to raise the...
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Wicked people are always surprised to find ability in those that are good.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES We should expect the best and the worst of mankind, as from the weather.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES We are almost always guilty of the hate we encounter.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Emotions have taught mankind to reason.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Those who can bear all can dare all.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Obscurity is the realm of error.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES One promises much, to avoid giving little.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, it should be rejected.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Action makes more fortune than caution
VAUVENARGUES, MARQUIS DE To possess taste, one must have some soul.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES It is not true that equality is a law of nature. Nature has no equality. Its sovereign law is subord...
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Wicked people are always surprised to find ability in those that are good.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Few maxims are true in every respect
VAUVENARGUES, MARQUIS DE Vice stirs up war, virtue fights.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Every thought is new when an author expresses it in a manner peculiar to himself.
MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES Those who can bear all can dare all.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE A new principle is an inexhaustible source of new views
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Those who think they have no need of others become unreasonable.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Clarity is the counterbalance of profound thoughts.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE We are so presumptuous that we think we can separate our personal interest from that of humanity, an...
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Necessity delivers us from the embarrassment of choice
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE All men are born truthful,and die liars.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and make the most ...
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Few maxims are true in every respect
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE More are taken in by hope than by cunning
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE More fortunes are made by energy than prudence
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE We should expect the best and the worst of mankind, as from the weather.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE The counsels of old age give light without heat, like the sun in winter.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE The heaviest object in the world is the body of the woman you have ceased to love.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE It is difficult to esteem a man as he desires to be esteemed
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Men sometimes feel injured by praise because it assigns a limit to their merit; few people are modes...
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Great success is commoner than great abilities.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Our opinion of others is not so variable as our opinion of ourselves.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of all pleasures
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Give help rather than advice.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Lazy people are always anxious to be doing something.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Vice stirs up war, virtue fights.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE One promises much, to avoid giving little.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE The idle always have a mind to do something.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Emotions have taught mankind to reason.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE The law cannot equalize mankind in spite of nature.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Most people grow old within a small circle of ideas, which they have not discovered for themselves. ...
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Great men undertake great things because they are great; fools, because they think them easy
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great amb...
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE The shortness of life cannot dissuade us from its pleasures, nor console us for its pains
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE There is nothing that fear or hope does not make men believe.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Wicked people are always surprised to find ability in those that are good.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE When thought is too weak to be simply expressed, it's clear proof that it should be rejected
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Habit is everything, even in love.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE You are not born for fame if you don't know the value of time.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE To possess taste, one must have some soul.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE We are often dismayed to find that even disasters cannot cure us of our faults.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Happiness lies neither in vice nor in virtue; but in the manner we appreciate the one and the other,...
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, simply drop it.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Lazy people are always wanting to do something
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Great thoughts come from the heart.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE If people did not compliment one another there would be little society.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Obscurity is the realm of error.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE The art of pleasing is the art of deception.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE We discover in others what others hide from us, and we recognize in others what we hide from ourselv...
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Patience is the art of hoping.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anythin...
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Generosity gives assistance, rather than advice.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Magnanimity has no need to prove the prudence of its motives
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE You must rouse into people's consciousness their own prudence and strength, if you want to raise the...
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Our actions are neither so good nor so evil as our impulses
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Action makes more fortune than caution
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE It is easy to criticize an author, but difficult to appreciate him
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers.
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE Vice stirs up war, virtue fights.
VAUVENARGUES, MARQUIS DE Newton, Pascal, Bossuet, Racine, Fénelon -- that is to say, some of the most enlightened men ...
VAUVENARGUES We are almost always guilty of the hate we encounter.
VAUVENARGUES All men are born truthful and die liars.
VAUVENARGUES I hope to see the bringing together of all the best educated people of the earth into a worldwide Co...
MARQUIS DE CONDORCET I read, I study, I examine, I listen, I think, and out of all that I try to form an idea into which ...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE May the friends of America rejoice! May her enemies be humbled and her censors silenced at the news ...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE Do not calculate what I have done, for I shall accept no recompense. Calculate the public advantage,...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE One is never so dangerous when one has no shame, than when one has grown too old to blush.
MARQUIS DE SADE Ah, Eugénie, have done with virtues! Among the sacrifices that can be made to those counter...
MARQUIS DE SADE Strength lies not in defence but in attack.
MARQUIS DE ACERBA If it is the dirty element that gives pleasure to the act of lust, then the dirtier it is, the more ...
MARQUIS DE SADE The horror of wedlock, the most appalling, the most loathsome of all the bonds humankind has devised...
MARQUIS DE SADE Nations have always good reasons for being what they are, and the best of all is that they cannot be...
MARQUIS DE CUSTINE The more defects a man may have, the older he is, the less lovable, the more resounding his success.
MARQUIS DE SADE As the mind learns to understand more complicated combinations of ideas, simpler formulae soon reduc...
MARQUIS DE CONDORCET The ultimate triumph of philosophy would be to cast light upon the mysterious ways in which Providen...
MARQUIS DE SADE Those laws, being forged for universal application, are in perpetual conflict with personal interest...
MARQUIS DE SADE Wolves which batten upon lambs, lambs consumed by wolves, the strong who immolate the weak, the weak...
MARQUIS DE SADE Happiness lies neither in vice nor in virtue; but in the manner we appreciate the one and the other,...
MARQUIS DE SADE There is no God, Nature sufficeth unto herself; in no wise hath she need of an author.
MARQUIS DE SADE The primary and most beautiful of Nature's qualities is motion, which agitates her at all times, but...
MARQUIS DE SADE All, all is theft, all is unceasing and rigorous competition in nature; the desire to make off with ...
MARQUIS DE SADE It is certain that stealing nourishes courage, strength, skill, tact, in a word, all the virtues use...
MARQUIS DE SADE How delightful are the pleasures of the imagination! In those delectable moments, the whole world is...
MARQUIS DE SADE Never lose sight of the fact that all human felicity lies in man's imagination, and that he cannot t...
MARQUIS DE SADE Lust is to the other passions what the nervous fluid is to life; it supports them all, lends strengt...
MARQUIS DE SADE Lust's passion will be served; it demands, it militates, it tyrannizes.
MARQUIS DE SADE If Nature denies eternity to beings, it follows that their destruction is one of her laws. Now, once...
MARQUIS DE SADE The majority of pop stars are complete idiots in every respect.
MARQUIS DE SADE Hope is the most sensitive part of a poor wretch's soul; whoever raises it only to torment him is be...
MARQUIS DE SADE Evil is a moral entity and not a created one, an eternal and not a perishable entity: it existed bef...
MARQUIS DE SADE Behold, my love, behold all that I simultaneously do: scandal, seduction, bad example, incest, adult...
MARQUIS DE SADE The mechanism that directs government cannot be virtuous, because it is impossible to thwart every c...
MARQUIS DE SADE Get it into your head once and for all, my simple and very fainthearted fellow, that what fools call...
MARQUIS DE SADE Never may an act of possession be exercised upon a free being; the exclusive possession of a woman i...
MARQUIS DE SADE Every principle is a judgment, every judgment the outcome of experience, and experience is only acqu...
MARQUIS DE SADE Miserable creatures, thrown for a moment on the surface of this little pile of mud, is it decreed th...
MARQUIS DE SADE I've already told you: the only way to a woman's heart is along the path of torment. I know none oth...
MARQUIS DE SADE So long as the laws remain such as they are today, employ some discretion: loud opinion forces us to...
MARQUIS DE SADE Humane sentiments are baseless, mad, and improper; they are incredibly feeble; never do they withsta...
MARQUIS DE SADE What annoyances are more painful than those of which we cannot complain?
MARQUIS DE CUSTINE The love of their country is with them only a mode of flattering its master; as soon as they think t...
MARQUIS DE CUSTINE They declaim against the passions without bothering to think that it is from their flame philosophy ...
MARQUIS DE SADE There is no more lively sensation than that of pain; its impressions are certain and dependable, the...
MARQUIS DE SADE Your body is the church where Nature asks to be reverenced.
MARQUIS DE SADE No lover, if he be of good faith, and sincere, will deny he would prefer to see his mistress dead th...
MARQUIS DE SADE Man's natural character is to imitate; that of the sensitive man is to resemble as closely as possib...
MARQUIS DE SADE Murder is a horror, but an often necessary horror, never criminal, which it is essential to tolerate...
MARQUIS DE SADE Destruction, hence, like creation, is one of Nature's mandates.
MARQUIS DE SADE Grace is always natural, though that does not prevent its being often used to hide a lie. The rude s...
MARQUIS DE CUSTINE For mortal men there is but one hell, and that is the folly and wickedness and spite of his fellows;...
MARQUIS DE SADE Any punishment that does not correct, that can merely rouse rebellion in whoever has to endure it, i...
MARQUIS DE SADE A multitude of little superfluous precautions engender here a population of deputies and sub-officia...
MARQUIS DE CUSTINE Do not breed. Nothing gives less pleasure than childbearing. Pregnancies are damaging to health, spo...
MARQUIS DE SADE Dread not infanticide; the crime is imaginary: we are always mistress of what we carry in our womb, ...
MARQUIS DE SADE One weeps not save when one is afraid, and that is why kings are tyrants.
MARQUIS DE SADE Lycurgus, Numa, Moses, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, all these great rogues, all these great thought-tyran...
MARQUIS DE SADE Religions are the cradles of despotism.
MARQUIS DE SADE To judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude that God created most men simp...
MARQUIS DE SADE Sex is as important as eating or drinking and we ought to allow the one appetite to be satisfied wit...
MARQUIS DE SADE In libertinage, nothing is frightful, because everything libertinage suggests is also a natural insp...
MARQUIS DE SADE She had already allowed her delectable lover to pluck that flower which, so different from the rose ...
MARQUIS DE SADE When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each porti...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE The circumstances of human society are too complicated to be submitted to the rigor of mathematical ...
MARQUIS DE CUSTINE All, all is theft, all is unceasing and rigorous competition in nature; the desire to make off with ...
MARQUIS DE SADE Any commands which Congress may have for me shall be cheerfully executed by one of their earliest so...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE I gave my heart to the Americans and thought of nothing else but raising my banner and adding my col...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE Nature, who for the perfect maintenance of the laws of her general equilibrium, has sometimes need o...
MARQUIS DE SADE It is the pride of my heart to have been one of the earliest adopted sons of America.
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE All the evils of France have been produced less by the perversity of the wicked and the violence of ...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE My heart has always been truly convinced that in serving the cause of America, I am fighting for the...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE Humanity has won its battle. Liberty now has a country.
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE Charleston is one of the best built, handsomest, and most agreeable cities that I have ever seen.
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE The good fortune of America is closely tied to the good fortune of all humanity.
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE I am astonished but not discouraged by my enormous responsibility. Devoted both from affection and d...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE I can assure the Marquis de Chasteler that it is my unalterable determination never to set foot on a...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE Though my conduct on the 10th of August 1792 was the act of my life of which I have most reason to b...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE It is necessary above all that the citizens, who have rallied round the constitution, should be assu...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE The American women are very pretty and have great simplicity of character, and the extreme neatness ...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE I had displeased the jacobins by blaming their aristocratic usurpation of legitimate powers; the pri...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE We still are pestered by two parties: the aristocratic, which is panting for a counter revolution, a...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE I became obnoxious to the Jacobins because I reprobated their aristocracy, which aimed at usurping a...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE I experience for the American officers and soldiers that friendship which arises from having shared ...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE The imagination is the spur of delights... all depends upon it, it is the mainspring of everything; ...
MARQUIS DE SADE The king knows with what ardor and perseverance I have at all times been devoted to the cause of lib...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE 'Sex' is as important as eating or drinking and we ought to allow the one appetite to be sat...
MARQUIS DE SADE My manner of thinking, so you say, cannot be approved. Do you suppose I care? A poor fool indeed is ...
MARQUIS DE SADE Our articles of confederation ought to be revised and measures immediately taken to invigorate the C...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE The Emperor Napoleon, ascending gradually from his post of national magistrate to seat himself upon ...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE I am able to say that I was very much liked at the school. I even had quite some ascendancy over my ...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain.
MARQUIS DE SADE Do not let us despair of the cause of liberty: it is still dear to the hearts of Frenchmen, and we s...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE No man can be subject to any laws, excepting those which have received the assent of himself or his ...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE But a wife..."
"...is an individual who can be interesting when one makes use of her, but one m...
MARQUIS DE SADE Never may an act of possession be exercised upon a free being; the exclusive possession of a woman i...
MARQUIS DE SADE Women are not made for one single man; 'tis for men at large Nature created them.
MARQUIS DE SADE From an early period, I had the happiness to rank among the foremost in the American Revolution. In ...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall by the hands of the clerg...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE Are not laws dangerous which inhibit the passions? Compare the centuries of anarchy with those of th...
MARQUIS DE SADE Defender of the liberty that I idolize, myself more free than anyone, in coming as a friend to offer...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE Nature has made men free and equal. The distinctions necessary for social order are only founded on ...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE One time, I was given an essay topic: to describe a perfect horse, whom the mere sight of the rider&...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE May these happy United States attain that complete splendour and prosperity which will illustrate th...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE The Huron and Iroquois forests are peopled by my friends; with me, the despots of Europe and their c...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each p...
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.
MARQUIS DE CONDORCET