It is unreasonable ... to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.

Vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous. To be convinced of this we need only represent, on the one hand,the numberless benefits which result from vanity, as industry, the arts, fashions, politeness, and taste; and on the other, the infinite evils which spring from the pride of certain nations, a laziness, poverty, a total neglect of everything.

Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.

In vain do we seek tranquility in the desert; temptations are always with us; our passions, represented by the demons, never let us alone: those monsters created by the heart, those illusions produced by the mind, those vain specters that are our errors and our lies always appear before us to seduce us; they attack us even in our fasting or our mortifications, in other words, in our very strength.

As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.

This punishment of death is the remedy, as it were, of a sick society.

The history of commerce is that of the communication of the people.