The power of divorce can be given only to those who feel the inconveniences of marriage, and who are sensible of the moment when it is for their interest to make them cease.

At our coming into the world we contract an immense debt to our country, which we can never discharge.

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

[The Pope] will make the king believe that three are only one, that the bread he eats is not bread... and a thousand other things of the same kind.

Honor is unknown in despotic states.

I shall be obliged to wander to the right and to the left, that I may investigate and discover the truth.

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