Christians are beginning to lose the spirit of intolerance which animated them: experience has shown the error of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and of the persecution of those Christians in France whose belief differed a little from that of the king. They have realized that zeal for the advancement of religion is different from a due attachment to it; and that in order to love it and fulfil its behests, it is not necessary to hate and persecute those who are opposed to it.

I never listen to calumnies, because if they are untrue I run the risk of being deceived, and if they be true, of hating persons not worth thinking about.

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

Wonderful maxim: not to talk of things any more after they are done.

...when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.

It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things.

Nature is just to all mankind, and repays them for their industry. She renders them industrious by annexing rewards in proportion to their labor.