Good deeds, when concealed, are the most admirable.

Mankind suffers from two excesses: to exclude reason, and to live by nothing but reason.

How hollow is the heart of man, and how full of excrement!

In proportion as our own mind is enlarged we discover a greater number of men of originality. Commonplace people see no difference between one man and another.

Silence. All human unhappiness comes from not knowing how to stay quietly in a room.

The parts of the universe ... all are connected with each other in such a way that I think it to be impossible to understand any one without the whole.

It is dangerous to tell the people that the laws are unjust; for they obey them only because they think them just. Therefore it isnecessary to tell them at the same time that they must obey them because they are laws, just as they must obey superiors, not because they are just, but because they are superiors. In this way all sedition is prevented.