Nature is just to all mankind, and repays them for their industry. She renders them industrious by annexing rewards in proportion to their labor.

There are only two cases in which war is just: first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.

When God endowed human beings with brains, He did not intend to guarantee them.

I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.

The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.

If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.

If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman... because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.