“The English are busy; they don’t have time to be polite.”

Honor is unknown in despotic states.

Honor sets all the parts of the body politic in motion, and by its very action connects them; thus each individual advances the public good, while he only thinks of promoting his own interest.

The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country.

There are bad examples which are worse than crimes; and more states have perished from the violation of morality than from the violation of law.

What orators lack in depth they make up for in length.

Law should be like death, which spares no one.

Wherever I find envy I take a pleasure in provoking it: I always praise before an envious man those who make him grow pale.

There should be weeping at a man’s birth, not at his death.

When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.

Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one’s wit at the expense of one’s better nature.

I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.

It is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another.

Experience constantly proves that every man who has power is impelled to abuse it; he goes on till he is pulled up by some limits. Who would say it! virtue even has need of limits.

Democracy is corrupted not only when the spirit of equality is corrupted, but likewise when they fall into a spirit of extreme equality.

Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness.

I suffer from the disease of writing books and being ashamed of them when they are finished.

When the contemplative mind is a French mind, it is content, for the most part, to contemplate France. When the contemplative mind is an English mind, it is liable to be seized at any moment by an importunate desire to contemplate Morocco or Labrador.

I don’t know how I’m sitting here right now speaking English.

We also try to teach them both Portuguese and Serbian, though English is their primary language.

Giving English to an American is like giving sex to a child.

The English have only three sauces – a white one, a brown one and a yellow one, and none of them have any flavor whatever.

J.Lo’ in written English only has three letters, and you still spelled it ‘M-smiley face-pound sign.

Get off of the car,’ J.Lo huffed. ‘I am an English superstar.’ Uh-uh. There’s no comparison. ‘

English can be tricky because there are so many false cognates, but sometimes, as long the idea conveyed is not wrong, these false cognates can themselves offer synonyms or lead to a better alternative word or phrase in translation.