Truth is no road to fortune.

Were there a people of gods, their government would be democratic. So perfect a government is not for men.

What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses.

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?

Whoever blushes is already guilty; true innocence is ashamed of nothing.

Your first appearance, he said to me, is the gauge by which you will be measured; try to manage that you may go beyond yourself in after times, but beware of ever doing less.

Youth is the time to study wisdom; old age is the time to practice it.