"Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being."

"Haven't you noticed that opinion without knowledge is always a poor thing? At the best it is blind—isn't anyone who holds a true opinion without understanding like a blind man on the right road?"

"The madness of love is the greatest of heaven's blessings."

"The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation."

"Philosophy is the highest music."

"I have a theory that you can make any sentence seem profound by writing the name of a dead philosopher at the end of it."

"Either never, or very seldom, do the quiet actions in life appear to be better than the quick and energetic ones."

"The madness of love is the greatest of heaven's blessings."

"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty."

"For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories."

"Everything that deceives may be said to enchant."