Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts, force our involuntary.

It's not those who write the laws that have the greatest impact on society. It's those who write the songs.

The arithmetical machine produces effects that approach nearer to thought than all the actions of animals. But it does nothing that would enable us to attribute will to it, as to the animals.

If a soldier or labourer complain of the hardship of his lot, set him to do nothing.

We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavor to shine. We labor unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence and neglect the real.

Imagination is the deceptive part in man, the mistress of error and falsehood.

What a chimera then is man. What a novelty! What a monster... what a contradiction, what a prodigy