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

Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.

Although born in a prosperous realm, we did not believe that its boundaries should limit our knowledge, and that the lore of the East should alone enlighten us.

The English are busy folk; they have no time in which to be polite.

The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind.

When God endowed human beings with brains, He did not intend to guarantee them.

Friendship is a contract in which we render small services in expectation of big ones.

It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.

The less men think, the more they talk.

Political liberty in a citizen is that tranquillity of spirit which comes from the opinion each one has of his security, and in order for him to have this liberty the government must be such that one citizen cannot fear another citizen.

A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.

The spirit of commerce… renders every man willing to live on his own property…& prevents the growth of luxury.

Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.

What unhappy beings men are! They constantly waver between false hopes and silly fears, and instead of relying on reason they create monsters to frighten themselves with, and phantoms which lead them astray.

With truths of a certain kind, it is not enough to make them appear convincing: one must also make them felt. Of such kind are moral truths.

In the state of nature… all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.

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

I wept that everything he made was pretty I forgot that I, too, was an art-the girl with a soft heart.

Mold me into poetry. Make me flow beautifully and deep. Write me into rhythmic verses with silent words that make me weep. Paint me with emotions like a bleeding sunset on a shore.

Man ruins is present while worrying about his future – – but weeps in the future by recalling his past.

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

To weep is to make less the depth of grief.

I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.

Deep in earth my love is lying and I must weep alone.

Instead of weeping when a tragedy occurs in a songbird’s life, it sings away its grief. I believe we could well follow the pattern of our feathered friends.