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.

All the miseries of mankind come from one thing, not knowing how to remain alone.

The last proceeding of reason is to recognize that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it. There is nothing so conformable to reason as this disavowal of reason.

All I know is that I must soon die, but what I know least is this very death which I cannot escape.

Who knows if this other half of life where we think we're awake is not another sleep a little different from the first.

We must kill them in war, just because they live beyond the river. If they lived on this side, we would be called murderers.

Imagination magnifies small objects with fantastic exaggeration until they fill our soul, and with bold insolence cuts down great things to its own size, as when speaking of God.