Political freedom is, or ought to be, the best guaranty for the safety and continuance of spiritual, mental, and civil freedom. It is the combination of numbers to secure the liberty to each one.

What is human is immortal!

At court one becomes a sort of human ant eater, and learns to catch one's prey by one's tongue.

He who esteems trifles for themselves is a trifler; he who esteems them for the conclusions to be drawn from them, or the advantage to which they can be put, is a philosopher.

Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength.

What men want is not talent, it is purpose; in other words, not the power to achieve, but the will to labor.

Of all the weaknesses little men rail against, there is none that they are more apt to ridicule than the tendency to believe. And of all the signs of a corrupt heart and a feeble head, the tendency of incredulity is the surest. Real philosophy seeks rather to solve than to deny.