In the state of nature... all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.

The reason the Romans built their great paved highways was because they had such inconvenient footwear.

Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness.

I should like to abolish funerals; the time to mourn a person is at his birth, not his death.

The laws do not take upon them to punish any other than overt acts.

Countries are not cultivated in proportion to their fertility, but to their liberty.

There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies; their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces.