Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like.

The strength of the people is effective only if it is concentrated; it evaporates and is lost when it is dispersed, just as gunpowder scattered on the ground ignites only grain by grain.

Taste is, so to speak, the microscope of the judgment.

It is hard to prevent oneself from believing what one so keenly desires, and who can doubt that the interest we have in admitting or denying the reality of the Judgement to come determines the faith of most men in accordance with their hopes and fears.

Our affections as well as our bodies are in perpetual flux.

The French, for example, are a contemptible nation.

The general will is always right.