Conscience is the voice of the soul, the passions are the voice of the body. It is strange that these voices often contradict each other?

There exists one book, which, to my taste, furnishes the happiest treatise of natural education. What then is this marvelous book? Is it Aristotle? Is it Pliny, is it Buffon? No-it is Robinson Crusoe.

Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect.

I was not much afraid of punishment, I was only afraid of disgrace.But that I feared more than death, more than crime, more than anything in the world. I should have rejoiced if the earth had swallowed me up and stifled me in the abyss. But my invincible sense of shame prevailed over everything . It was my shame that made me impudent, and the more wickedly I behaved the bolder my fear of confession made me. I saw nothing but the horror of being found out, of being publicly proclaimed, to my face, as a thief, as a liar, and slanderer.

When a man dies he clutches in his hands only that which he has given away during his lifetime.

Universal silence is taken to imply the consent of the people.

Patience patience quotes is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.