In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.
Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.
Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.
False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.
Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.
Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.
An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.
It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.
Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.
In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.
If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, and that is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.
If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.
I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.
Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.
Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.