It is in man’s heart that the life of nature’s spectacle exists; to see it, one must feel it.

It is not the criminal things which are hardest to confess, but the ridiculous and shameful.

It should be remembered that the foundation of the social contract is property; and its first condition, that every one should be maintained in the peaceful possession of what belongs to him.

L’homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers .

Luxury either comes of riches or makes them necessary; it corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the poor by covetousness.

Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

Men always love what is good or what they find good; it is in judging what is good that they go wrong.

Nature’s instructions are always slow, those of men are generally premature.

Never exceed your rights, and they will soon become unlimited.

Old men grasp more at life than babies, and leave it with a much worse grace than young people. It is because all their labours having been for this life, they perceive at last their trouble lost.