Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.

The severity of the laws prevents their execution.

Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it.

Power should be a check on power.

Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.

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 enlighten us.

Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.