Self-love is the source of all our other loves.
Pierre Corneille
To win without risk is to triumph without glory.
The greater the effort, the greater the glory.
When there is no peril in the fight there is no glory in the triumph.
A liar is always lavish of oaths.
The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.
True, I am young, but for souls nobly born valor doesn't await the passing of years.
We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness.
Happiness seems made to be shared.
We never taste a perfect joy; our happiest successes are mixed with sadness.
Every man of courage is a man of his word.
To vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory.
We triumph without glory when we conquer without danger.
Do your duty and leave the rest to heaven.
Love is a tyrant sparing none.
To he who avenges a father, nothing is impossible.
Oh rage! Oh despair! Oh age, my enemy!
A Victory without danger is a triumph without glory.
Reason and love are sworn enemies.
He who allows himself to be insulted deserves to be.
The crime and not the scaffold makes the shame.
Ambition aspires to descend.
Guess, if you can, and choose, if you dare.
He who does not fear death cares naught for threats.
To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster; either condemn or crown your hatred.
Force is legitimate where gentleness avails not.
He who pardons easily invites offense.
One half of my life has put the other half in the grave.
Just vengeance does not call for punishment.
This dark brightness that falls from the stars.
Peace is produced by war.
Treachery is noble when aimed at tyranny.
Each instant of life is a step toward death.
The subject of a good tragedy must not be realistic.
When the patient loves his disease, how unwilling he is to allow a remedy to be applied.
He who can live in infamy is unworthy of life.
After having won a scepter, few are so generous as to disdain the pleasures of ruling.
One is often guilty by being too just.
Those who easily forgive invite offenses.
Alas, I emerge from one disaster to fall into a worse.
It matters more how one gives than what one gives.
I can be forced to live without happiness, but I will never consent to live without honor.
I don't know how to defend myself: surprised innocence cannot imagine being under suspicion.
A good memory is needed after one has lied.
Oh, how sweet it is to pity the fate of an enemy who can no longer threaten us!
Desire increases when fulfillment is postponed.
Master of the universe but not of myself, I am the only rebel against my absolute power.
Deceit is the game of petty spirits, and that is by nature a woman's quality.
One often calms one's grief by recounting it.
An example is often a deceptive mirror, and the order of destiny, so troubling to our thoughts, is not always found written in things past.