Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies..

Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature..

Very good laws may be ill timed..

Coffee renders many foolish people temporarily capable of wise actions.

I should like to abolish funerals; the time to mourn a person is at his birth, not his death..

What unhappy beings men are! They constantly waver between false hopes and silly fears, and instead of relying on reason they create monsters to frig….

Although born in a prosperous realm, we did not believe that its boundaries should limit our knowledge, and that the lore of the East should alone en….

Passion makes us feel, but never see clearly..

When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws..

False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happin….

In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter,….

Christianity stamped its character on jurisprudence; for empire has ever a connection with the priesthood..

But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go..

There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice..

Honor is unknown in despotic states..

Law should be like death, which spares no one..

Love of reading enables a man to exchange the weary hours, which come to every one, for hours of delight..

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

As men are affected in all ages by the same passions, the occasions which bring about great changes are different, but the causes are always the same..

In the matter of dress one should always keep below one's ability..

Liberty... is there only when there is no abuse of power..