Frequent punishments are always a sign of weakness or laziness on the part of a government.

Do not base your life on the judgments of others; first, because they are as likely to be mistaken as you are, and further, because you cannot know that they are telling you their true thoughts.

Ordinary readers, forgive my paradoxes: one must make them when one reflects; and whatever you may say, I prefer being a man with paradoxes than a man with prejudices.

Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain.

We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.

Every free action has two causes that come together to produce it. One is moral, the will that determines the act; the other is physical, the power that executes the will to act.

Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it.