Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men.

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.

I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.

Desire is the essence of a man.

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.

I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.