Children are … encouraged to be imitators, a course to which they are already too much inclined. No one thinks of making them original, courageous, i… - Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues

As soon as an opinion becomes common it is sufficient reason for men to abandon it and to uphold the opposite opinion until that in its turn grows old, and they require to distinguish themselves by other things. Thus if they attain their goal in some art or science, we must expect them soon to cast it aside to acquire some fresh fame, and this is partly the reason why the most splendid ages degenerate so quickly, and, scarcely emerged from barbarism, plunge into it again.

Men are not to be judged by what they do not know, but by what they know, and by the manner in which they know it.

Pour exécuter de grandes choses, il faut vivre comme si on ne devait jamais mourir.