Politics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression.

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

The crime against nature will never make any great progress in society unless people are prompted to it by some particular custom.

Love of the republic in a democracy, is a love of the democracy; love of the democracy is that of equality. Love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality.

I shall be obliged to wander to the right and to the left, that I may investigate and discover the truth.

They who love to inform themselves, are never idle. Though I have no business of consequence to take care of, I am nevertheless continually employed. I spend my life in examining things: I write down in the evening whatever I have remarked, what I have seen, and what I have heard in the day: every thing engages my attention, and every thing excites my wonder: I am like an infant, whose organs, as yet tender, are strongly affected by the slightest objects.

The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.