The bigger a state becomes the more liberty diminishes.

The want of occupation is no less the plague of society than of solitude.

The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the causes of its destruction.

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.

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

The abuse of books kills science. Believing that we know what we have read, we believe that we can dispense with learning it.

Money is the seed of money.