The severity of penalties is only a vain resource, invented by little minds in order to substitute terror for that respect which they have no means of obtaining.

The happiest is he who suffers the least pain; the most miserable, he who enjoys the least pleasure.

The passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces a very remarkable change in man, by substituting justice for instinct in his conduct.

We are the two great painters of this era; you are in the Egyptian style, I in themodern style. (to Pablo Picasso)

Nothing makes me so happy as to observe nature and to paint what I see.

The severity of penalties is only a vain resource, invented by little minds in order to substitute terror for that respect which they have no means of obtaining.

When I go out into the countryside and see the sun and the green and everything flowering, I say to myself "Yes indeed, all that belongs to me!"