"Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable."

"The public is a ferocious beast; one must chain it up or flee from it."

"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."

"The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by epigrams."

"We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature."