What, then, is the government? An intermediary body established between the subjects and the sovereign for their mutual communication, and charged with the execution of the laws and the maintenance of freedom, civil as well as political.

Too much apparatus, designed to guide us in experiments and to supplement the exactness of our senses, makes us neglect to use those senses...The more ingenious our apparatus, the coarser and more unskillful are our senses. We surround ourselves with tools and fail to use those which nature has provided every one of us.

If I am part of a group of 100 people, do 99 people have the right to sentence me to death, just because they are majority?

Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.

To abstain that we may enjoy is the epicurianism of reason.

The only moral lesson which is suited for a child--the most important lesson for every time of life--is this: 'Never hurt anybody.

If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.