Brutes are deprived of the high advantages which we have; but they have some which we have not. They have not our hopes, but theyare without our fears; they are subject like us to death, but without knowing it; even most of them are more attentive than we to self-preservation, and do not make so bad a use of their passions.

In constitutional states, liberty is compensation for heavy taxes; in dictatorships, the subsititue is light taxes.

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

Honor is unknown in despotic states.

A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.

Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.

Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.