Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.

Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.

Honor sets all the parts of the body politic in motion, and by its very action connects them; thus each individual advances the public good, while he only thinks of promoting his own interest.

When a government is arrived to that degree of corruption as to be incapable of reforming itself, it would not lose much by being new moulded.

A prince who loves and fears religion is a lion who stoops to the hand that strokes or to the voice that appeases him. He who fears and hates religion is like the savage beast that growls and bites the chain, which prevents his flying on the passenger. He who has no religion at all is that terrible animal who perceives his liberty only when he tears in pieces, and when he devours.

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.

Mediocrity is a hand-rail.