As I take up my pen I feel myself so full, so equal to my subject, and see my book so clearly before me in embryo, I would almost like to try to say it all in a single word.

Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.

To receive applause for works which do not demand all our powers hinders our advance towards a perfecting of our spirit. It usually means that thereafter we stand still.

It is a sure evidence of a good book if it pleases us more and more as we grow older.

I ceased in the year 1764 to believe that one can convince one’s opponents with arguments printed in books. It is not to do that, therefore, that I have taken up my pen, but merely so as to annoy them, and to bestow strength and courage on those on our own side, and to make it known to the others that they have not convinced us.

What you have been obliged to discover by yourself leaves a path in your mind which you can use again when the need arises.

What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears...as easily as we open and shut our eyes.