What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.

We are rarely proud when we are alone.

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.

Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.