Experience shows that the frequent use of severe punishment has never rendered a people better. The death of a criminal is a less effective means of restraining crimes than the permanent example of a man deprived of his liberty during the whole of his life to make amends for the injury he has done to the public.

If Russians knew how to read, they would write me off.

Don't worry about things you cannot alter

The laws ought to be so framed as to secure the safety of every citizen as much as possible. ... Political liberty does not consist in the notion that a man may do whatever he pleases; liberty is the right to do whatsoever the laws allow. ... The equality of the citizens consists in that they should all be subject to the same laws.

I shall be an autocrat: that's my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that's his.

I do not love strife, because I have always found that in the end each remains of the same opinion.

God, grant us our desires, and grant them quickly.