There are people who possess not so much genius as a certain talent for perceiving the desires of the century, or even of the decade, before it has done so itself.

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.

A good part of the fame of most celebrated men is due to the shortsightedness of their admirers

Deliberate virtue is never worth much: The virtue of feeling or habit is the thing.

The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.

I would give something to know for whose sake precisely those deeds were really done which report says were done for the fatherland.

Be attentive, feel nothing in vain, measure and compare: this is the whole law of philosophy.