We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our school-masters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.

The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver.

Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality.

The less men think, the more they talk.

If I knew something that would serve my country but would harm mankind, I would never reveal it; for I am a citizen of humanity first and by necessity, and a citizen of France second, and only by accident

The state is the association of men, and not men themselves; the citizen may perish, and the man remain.

This punishment of death is the remedy, as it were, of a sick society.