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Find quotes, thinkers, and ideas across centuries of human thought.
Thinkers
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35 found"If I had married a woman intelligent enough to guide me, to rule me without my feeling that I was ruled, I should have taken good care of my money, I should have had children, and I should not be, as …"
"Man is free, but his freedom ceases when he has no faith in it"
"I will begin with this confession: whatever I have done in the course of my life, whether it be good or evil, has been done freely; I am a free agent."
"I loved, I was loved, my health was good, I had a great deal of money, and I spent it, I was happy and I confessed it to myself."
"Nothing is so catching as the plague; now, fanaticism, no matter of what nature, is only the plague of the human mind."
"Since, though I do not repent my amorous exploits, I am far from wanting my example to contribute to the corruption of the fair sex, which deserves our homage for so many reasons, I hope that my obser…"
"The spirit of rebellion is present in every great city, and the great task of wise government is to keep it dormant, for if it wakes it is a torrent which no dam can hold back."
"The reader of these Memoirs will discover that I never had any fixed aim before my eyes, and that my system, if it can be called a system, has been to glide away unconcernedly on the stream of life, t…"
"I saw that everything famous and beautiful in the world, if we judge by the descriptions and drawings of writers and artists, always loses when we go to see it and examine it closely."
"If you wish your audience to cry, you must shed tears yourself, but if you wish to make them laugh you must contrive to look as serious as a judge."
"This extremely interesting girl, after giving me a single glance from her beautiful eyes, stubbornly refused to look at me again. My vanity at once made me think that it was only so that I would be at…"
"Man is free; yet we must not suppose that he is at liberty to do everything he pleases, for he becomes a slave the moment he allows his actions to be ruled by passion. The man who has sufficient power…"
"I have written the history of my life, and I have a perfect right to do so; but am I wise in throwing it before a public of which I know nothing but evil? No, I am aware it is sheer folly, but I want …"
"When a sonnet is mediocre it is bad, for it should be sublime."
"I have always loved truth so passionately that I have often resorted to lying as a way of first introducing it into minds which were ignorant of its charms."
"Great God, and you witnesses of my death, I have lived as a philosopher, and I die as a Christian."
"e avenge intelligence when we deceive a fool, and the victory is worth the trouble"
"Learn from me that a wise man who has heard a criminal accusation related with so many absurd particulars ceases to be wise when he makes himself the echo of what he has heard, for if the accusation s…"
"Happy or unhappy, life is the only treasure which man possesses"
"An ancient author tells us somewhere, with the tone of a pedagogue, if you have not done anything worthy of being recorded, at least write something worthy of being read. It is a precept as beautiful …"
"Should anyone bring against me an accusation of sensuality he would be wrong, for all the fierceness of my senses never caused me to neglect any of my duties."
"The chief business of my life has always been to indulge my senses; I never knew anything of greater importance. I felt myself born for the fair sex, I have ever loved it dearly, and I have been loved…"
