Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right... Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.

A fact may blossom into a truth.

What a pity if we do not live this short time according to the laws of the long time,--the eternal laws!

Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.

Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost.

Man's moral nature is a riddle which only eternity can solve.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust.