The alms given to a naked man in the street do not fulfil the obligations of the state, which owes to every citizen a certain subsistence, a proper nourishment, convenient clothing, and a kind of life not incompatible with health.

Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.

There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of Christ.

The love of study is in us the only lasting passion. All the others quit us in proportion as this miserable machine which holds them approaches its ruins.

As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.

We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.

It is unreasonable ... to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.