We seek knowledge only because we desire enjoyment, and it is impossible to conceive why a person who has neither desires nor fears would take the trouble to reason.
O love, if I regret the age when one savors you, it is not for the hour of pleasure, but for the one that follows it.
Laws are always useful to those who possess and vexatious to those who have nothing.
The first sentiment of man was that of his existence, his first care that of preserving it.
The first man, who, after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, "This is mine, " and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society.
Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid but which none have a right to expect.
I have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.
I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.
Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.
Among the many short cuts to science, we badly need someone to teach us the art of learning with difficulty.
Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.
She was dull, unattractive, couldn't tell the time, count money or tie her own shoe laces... But I loved her
As she put it, she knew of nothing so ravishing as having a child whom she could whip whenever she was in a bad mood.("The Queen Fantasque")
If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.
Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to preserve it. Has it ever been said that a man who throws himself out the window to escape a fire is guilty of suicide?
