A warlike nation like the Germans, without either cities, letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this savage state in the enjoyment of liberty. Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.

My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the decent obscurity of a learned language.

I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.

[Whole] generations may be swept away by the madness of kings in the space of a single hour.

Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind.

The Gauls were endowed with all the advantages of art and nature; but as they wanted courage to defend them, they were justly condemned to obey, and even to flatter, the victorious Barbarians, by whose clemency they held their precarious fortunes and their lives.

Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself.