“I care not so much what I am in the opinion of others, as what I am in my own.”

“I do not care so much what I am to others as I care what I am to myself.”

“When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts,nothing helps me so much as running to my books.They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.”

“I find I am much prouder of the victory I obtain over myself, when, in the very ardor of dispute, I make myself submit to my adversary’s force of reason, than I am pleased with the victory I obtain over him through his weakness.”

“I never rebel so much against France as not to regard Paris with a friendly eye; she has had my heart since my childhood.... I love her tenderly, even to her warts and her spots. I am French only by this great city: the glory of France, and one of the noblest ornaments of the world.”

“When I express my opinions it is so as to reveal the measure of my sight not the measure of the thing.”

“And therefore, Reader, I myself am the subject of my book: it is not reasonable that you should employ your leisure on a topic so frivolous and so vain.Therefore, Farewell:”