Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it.

With truths of a certain kind, it is not enough to make them appear convincing: one must also make them felt. Of such kind are moral truths.

Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.

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

Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.

We ought to be very cautious in the prosecution of magic and heresy. The attempt to put down these two crimes may be extremely perilous to liberty, and may be the origin of a number of petty acts of tyranny if the legislator be not on his guard; for as such an accusation does not bear directly on the overt acts of a citizen, but refers to the idea we entertain of his character.

The English are busy folk; they have no time in which to be polite.