Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.

Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.

Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.

Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?

The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way you can make a man trustworthy is to trust him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him.

When I left Barcelona, staying in Spain was an important factor in my decision to join Madrid. I did not have to change country or learn a new language, adopt a different sort of lifestyle, and so on.