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

There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.

Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest.

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.

Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality.

Vitam Impendere Vero (I consecrate my life to truth).

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