Nearly always, so as to live at peace with ourselves, we disguise our own impotence and weakness as calculation and policy; it is our way of placatin….

No duty, however, binds us to these so-called laws, whose corrupting influence menaces what is noblest in our being..

The people who, in order to enjoy the liberty which suites them, resort to the representative system, must exercise an active and constant surveillan….

There is a bizarre notion according to which it is claimed that because men are corrupt, it is necessary to give certain of them all the more power..….

The great question in life is the suffering we cause, and the most ingenious metaphysics do not justify the man who has broken the heart that loved h….

Every time government attempts to handle our affairs, it costs more and the results are worse than if we had handled them ourselves..

Art for art's sake, with no purpose, for any purpose perverts art. But art achieves a purpose which is not its own. (1804).

Woe to the man who in the first moments of a love-affair does not believe that it will last forever! Woe to him who even in the arms of some mistress….

There are things one does not say for a long time, but, once they are said, one never stops repeating them..