"What keeps us from abandoning ourselves entirely..." - Quote by Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Not all who discharge their debts of gratitude should flatter themselves that they are grateful.”

“Idleness is more an infirmity of the mind than of the body.”

“Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones; just as the wind blows out candles, but kindles fires.”

“I would rather have India reduced to a state of pauperism than have thousands of drunkards in our midst.”

“There is no vice or folly that requires so much nicety and skill to manage as vanity; nor any which by ill management makes so contemptible a figure.”

“I never was so rapid in my virtue but my vice kept up with me.”

“Fear is a healthy instinct, not a sign of weakness. It is a natural self-defense mechanism that is common to felines, wolves, hyenas, and most humans. Even fruit bats know fear, and I salute them for it. If you think the world is weird now, imagine how weird it would be if wild beasts had no fear.”

“People weighed down with troubles do not look back; they know only too well that misfortune stalks them.”

“Man alone resists the direction of gravitation: he constantly wants to fall--upwards.”