“One must count ones riches by the means one has to satisfy his desires.”

“Lying gets all the recompenses, then, while despair and loneliness are the rewards of constancy and fidelity.”

“To get rich, one must have but a single idea, one fixed, hard, immutable thought: the desire to make a heap of gold. And in order to increase this heap of gold, one must be inflexible, a usurer, thief, extortionist, and murderer! And one must especially mistreat the small and the weak!And when this mountain of gold has been amassed, one can climb up on it, and from up on the summit, a smile on one’s lips, one can contemplate the valley of poor wretches that one has created.”

“You must promise me. You can't desire the end without desiring the means.'Ah, but one can, he thought, one can: one can desire the peace of victory without desiring the ravaged towns.”

“No one is satisfied with his position, but every one is satisfied with his wit”

“To desire to change one’s past means there is a desire to change oneself. To desire to change oneself, one must learn to change.”

“There’s only one thing worse than not satisfying a desire. And that is not to feel any desire.”