I bold it impossible, that the great monarchies of Europe can subsist much longer; they all affect magnificence and splendor.

He who pretends to look upon death without fear, lies

I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.

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

The problem is to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before.

Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.

Had I no other proof of the immortality of the soul than the oppression of the just and the triumph of the wicked in this world, this alone would prevent my having the least doubt of it. So shocking a discord amidst a general harmony of things would make me naturally look for a cause; I should say to myself we do not cease to exist with this life; everything reassumes its order after death.