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It is with happiness as with watches: the less complicated, the less easily deranged.
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The great always sell their society to the vanity of the little.
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Swallow a toad in the morning and you will encounter nothing more disgusting the rest of the day.
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Running a house should be left to innkeepers.
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There are more fools than wise men, and even in a wise man there is more folly than wisdom.
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Public opinion reigns in society because stupidity reigns amongst the stupid.
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What we love intensely or for a long time we are likely to bring within the citadel, and to assert as part of oneself.
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A good number of works owe their success to the mediocrity of their authors' ideas, which match the mediocrity of those of the general public.
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Do you think that revolutions are made with rose water?
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Secrecy is best taught by starting with ourselves.
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Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.
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Stupidity would not be absolute stupidity did it not fear intelligence.
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Too elevated qualities often unfit a man for society. We do not go to market with ingots, but with silver and small change.
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An author is often obscure to the reader because they proceed from the thought to expression than like the reader from the expression to the thought.
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Every woman in choosing a lover takes more account of the way in which other women regard the man than of her own.
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Love is more pleasant than marriage for the same reason that novels are more amusing than history.
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Do not suppose opportunity will knock twice at your door.
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Love is the exchange of two fantasies and the contact of two skins.
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Success makes success, like money makes money.
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Women of the world crave excitement.
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Society is composed of two great classes, those that have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.
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We need to be just before we are generous, as we need shirts before ruffles.
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A man should swallow a toad every morning to be sure of not meeting with anything more revolting in the day ahead.
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To possess a good cognomen is a long way on the road of success in life.