I have not the hope of being immortal, because the desire of it has not given me that vanity.

At an early age I sucked up the milk of Homer, Virgil, Horace, Terence, Anacreon, Plato and Euripides, diluted with that of Moses and the prophets.

Which is the greater merit, to enlighten the human race, which remains forever, or to save one's fatherland, which is perishable?

Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.

In general, children, like men, and men, like children, prefer entertainment to education.

We are a free people; and now you have planted in our country the title deeds of our future slavery. You are neither god nor demon; who are you, then, to make slaves? Orou! You understand the language of these men, tell us all, as you have told me, what they have written on this sheet of metal: This country is ours. This country yours? And why? Because you have walked thereon? If a Tahitian landed one day on your shores, and scratched on one of your rocks or on the bark of your trees: This country belongs to the people of Tahiti - what would you think?

If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.