There are men whom a happy disposition, a strong desire of glory and esteem, inspire with the same love for justice and virtue which men in general have for riches and honors. But the number of these men is so small that I only mention them in honor of humanity.

Pleasure and pain are the only springs of action in man, and always will be.

A man who believes that he eats his God we do not call mad; yet, a man who says he is Jesus Christ, we call mad.

To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves: such a prohibition ought to fill them with disdain.

What makes men happy is liking what they have to do. This is a principle on which society is not founded

The man who believes he can do it is probably right.

The men of sense, the idols of the shallow, are very inferior to the men of passions. It is the strong passions which, rescuing us from sloth, impart to us that continuous and earnest attention necessary to great intellectual efforts.