An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.

To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.

When the savages of Louisiana wish to have fruit, they cut the tree at the bottom and gather the fruit. That is exactly a despotic government.

When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.

Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.

No tyranny is more cruel than the one practised in the shadow of the laws and under color of justice - when, so to speak, one proceeds to drown the unfortunate on the very plank by which they had saved themselves. And since a tyrant never lacks instruments for his tyranny, Tiberius always found judges ready to condemn as many people as he might suspect.

I shall ever repeat it, that mankind are governed not by extremes, but by principals of moderation.