Statesman are suspected of plotting against mankind, rather than consulting their interests, and are esteemed more crafty than learned.

In the state of nature, wrong-doing is impossible ; or, if anyone does wrong, it is to himself, not to another.

Schisms do not originate in a love of truth, which is a source of courtesy and gentleness, but rather in an inordinate desire for supremacy.

He who seeks to regulate everything by law is more likely to arouse vices than to reform them. It is best to grant what cannot be abolished, even though it be in itself harmful. How many evils spring from luxury, envy, avarice, drunkenness and the like, yet these are tolerated because they cannot be prevented by legal enactments.

Love is nothing but joy accompanied with the idea of an eternal cause.

Men will find that they can ... avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides by united action.

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.