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

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A taste for ostentation is rarely associated in the same souls with a taste for honesty

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Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

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Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of the world, but degenerates once it gets into the hands of man

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I believed that I was approaching the end of my days without having tasted to the full any of the pleasures for which my heart thirsted...without havi...more

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It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.

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...an animal, at the end of a few months, is what it will be all its life; and its species, at the end of a thousand years, is what it was in the firs...more

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Government in its infancy had no regular and permanent form. For want of a sufficient fund of philosophy and experience, men could see no further than...more

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To live is not to breathe but to act. It is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties, of all the parts of ourselves which give us the sent...more

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If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.

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Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is; the people is never corrupted, but it is often deceived..." (Bk2:3)

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What, then, is the government? An intermediary body established between the subjects and the sovereign for their mutual communication, a body charged ...more

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Liberty may be gained, but can never be recovered." (Bk2:8)

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In any case, frequent punishments are a sign of weakness or slackness in the government. There is no man so bad that he cannot be made good for someth...more