The right of conquest has no foundation other than the right of the strongest.

The social contract.

The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.

The vine that has been made to bear fruit in the spring, withers and dies before autumn.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

They must know but little of mankind who can imagine that, after they have been once seduced by luxury, they can ever renounce it.

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.

To reign by opinion, begin by trampling it under your feet.

To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.

To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written.