Democracy is necessarily despotism, as it establishes an executive power contrary to the general will; all being able to decide against one whose opinion may differ, the will of all is therefore not that of all: which is contradictory and opposite to liberty.

I feel a complete thirst for knowledge and an eager unrest to go further in it as well as satisfaction at every acquisition. There was a time when I believed that this alone could constitute the honor of mankind, and I had contempt for the ignorant rabble who know nothing.

With men, the state of nature is not a state of peace, but war.

Man must be disciplined, for he is by nature raw and wild.

The greatest human quest is to know what one must do in order to become a human being.

A society that is not willing to demand a life of somebody who has taken somebody else’s life is simply immoral.

Every human being should always be treated as an end and never as a mere instrument.