The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries in itself the causes of its destruction.

The Catholic must adopt the decision handed down to him; the Protestant must learn to decide for himself.

The first man to fence in a piece of land, saying “This is mine,’’ and who found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society.

The first of all laws is to respect the laws: the severity of penalties is only a vain resource, invented by little minds in order to substitute terror for that respect which they have no means of obtaining.

The French, for example, are a contemptible nation.

The happiest is the person who suffers the least pain; the most miserable who enjoys the least pleasure.

The less reasonable a cult is, the more men seek to establish it by force.

The man who has lived the longest is not he who has spent the greatest number of years, but he who has had the greatest sensibility of life.

The more humanity owes him [the poor man], the more society denies him. Every door is shut against him, even when he has a right to its being opened: and if he ever obtains justice, it is with much greater difficulty than others obtain favours.

The passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces a very remarkable change in man, by substituting justice for instinct in his conduct.