Sadness does not inhere in things; it does not reach us from the world and through mere contemplation of the world. It is a product of our own thought. We create it out of whole cloth.

Science cannot describe individuals, but only types. If human societies cannot be classified, they must remain inaccessible to scientific description.

That men have an interest in knowing the world which surrounds them, and consequently that their reflection should have been applied to it at an early date, is something that everyone will readily admit.

If one class of society is obliged, in order to live, to take any price for its services, while another can abstain from such action thanks to resources at its disposal which, however, are not necessarily due to any social superiority, the second has an unjust advantage over the first at law. In other words, there cannot be rich and poor a birth without there being unjust contracts.

A mind that questions everything, unless strong enough to bear the weight of its ignorance, risks questioning itself and being engulfed in doubt.

Each new generation is reared by its predecessor; the latter must therefore improve in order to improve its successor. The movement is circular.

To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness.