Quotes from Luc de Clapiers

We should expect the best and the worst from mankind as from the weather.

Reason deceives us more often than does nature.

Peace renders nations happier and men weaker.

The falsest of all philosophies is that which, under the pretext of delivering men from the embarrassment of their passions, counsels idleness and the abandonment and neglect of themselves.

Hope is the only good thing that disillusion respects.

We are very wrong to think that some fault or other can exclude virtue, or to consider the alliance of good and evil as a monstrosity or an enigma.

If it is true that vice can never be done away with, the science of government consists of making it contribute to the public good.

In order to do great things, it is necessary to live as if one was never to die.

The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of pleasures.

Whatever affection we have for our friends or relations, the happiness of others never suffices for our own.

More are taken in by hope than by cunning.

We are so presumptuous that we think we can separate our personal interest from that of humanity, and slander mankind without compromising ourselves.

No one is more liable to make mistakes than he who acts only on reflexion.

The art of pleasing is the art of deception.

The mind is the soul's eye, not its source of power. That lies in the heart, in other words, in the passions.

Ignorance is not lack of intelligence, nor knowledge a proof of genius.

The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambition.

Some of us would be greatly astonished to learn the reasons why others respect us.

We are not greatly pleased that our friends should respect our good qualities if they venture to perceive our faults.

We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.

Wit does not take the place of knowledge.

Those who can bear all can dare all.

To possess taste, one must have some soul.

The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught.