“The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver.”

In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.

To succeed in the world we must look foolish but be wise.

A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.

You have to study a great deal to know a little.

There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of Christ.

Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.

The severity of the laws prevents their execution.

Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.

Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.

Liberty… is there only when there is no abuse of power.

Oh, how empty is praise when it reflects back to its origin!

Power ought to serve as a check to power.

If you would be holy, instruct your children, because all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you.

When we seek after wit, we discover only foolishness.

The power of divorce can be given only to those who feel the inconveniences of marriage, and who are sensible of the moment when it is for their interest to make them cease.

If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier that other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are. you are comparing your lot with an ideal which is of course better and therefore you feel worse

The severity of the laws prevents their execution.

Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.

I hold the exact opposite: important philosophical problems concerning language have been misconstrued as relating to the content of science and the nature of the world. This is not at all new, but is the traditional nominalist line.

To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.

The less men think, the more they talk.

Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.

An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.

Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.