The desire for glory is no different from that instinct for preservation that is common to all creatures. It is as if we enhance our being if we can gain a place in the memory...

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.

Every man is capable of doing good to another, but to contribute to the happiness of an entire society is to become akin to the gods

We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our school masters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.

In vain do we seek tranquility in the desert; temptations are always with us; our passions, represented by the demons, never let us alone: those monsters created by the heart, those illusions produced by the...

History is full of religious wars; but, we must take care to observe, it was not the multiplicity of religions that produced these wars, it was the intolerating spirit which animated that one which thought...

Aimer lire, c’est faire un échange des heures d’ennui contre des heures délicieuses.

What unhappy beings men are! They constantly waver between false hopes and silly fears, and instead of relying on reason they create monsters to frighten themselves with, and phantoms which lead them astray.

I can assure you that no kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ.

A truly virtuous man would come to the aid of the most distant stranger as quickly as to his own friend. If men were perfectly virtuous, they wouldn’t have friends.

I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.

Democratic and aristocratic states are not in their own nature free. Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments; and even in these it is not always found. It is there only when...