Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.
Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.
The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness.
Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition.
Beauty is an outward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.
Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.
But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous.
Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.
Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.
Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.
Of the various forms of government which have prevailed in the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule.
History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.
I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.
I understand by this passion the union of desire, friendship, and tenderness, which is inflamed by a single female, which prefers her to the rest of her sex, and which seeks her possession as the supreme or the sole happiness of our being.