General ideas are no proof of the strength, but rather of the insufficiency of the human intellect.

Because Roman civilization perished through barbarian invasions, we are perhaps too much inclined to think that that is the only way a civilization can die. If the lights that guide us ever go out, they will fade little by little, as if of their own accord.... We therefore should not console ourselves by thinking that the barbarians are still a long way off. Some peoples may let the torch be snatched from their hands, but others stamp it out themselves.

Nations are less disposed to make revolutions in proportion as personal property is augmented and distributed among them, and as the number of those possessing it is increased.

When the people rule, they must be rendered happy, or they will overturn the state.

I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.

There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by the laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality.

The happy and powerful do not go into exile, and there are no surer guarantees of equality among men than poverty and misfortune.