It is not error which opposes the progress of truth; it is indolence, obstinacy, the spirit of routine, every thing which favors inaction.

The whole mass of humanity . . . marches constantly, though slowly, toward greater perfection.

Every soil does not produce every material.

What I admire in Columbus is not his having discovered a new world but his having gone to search for it on the faith of an opinion.

It is not error which opposes the progress of truth; it is indolence, obstinacy, the spirit of routine, every thing which favors inaction.

The earth has been cultivated before it has been divided; the cultivation itself having been the only motive for a division, and for that law which secures to every one his property. For the first persons who have employed themselves in cultivation, have probably worked as much land as their strength would permit, and, consequently, more than was necessary for their own nourishment.

Gold and silver are constituted, by the nature of things, money, and universal money, independent of all convention, and of all laws.