I have never believed that man's freedom consisted in doing what he wants, but rather in never doing what he does not want to do.

In a well governed state, there are few punishments, not because there are many pardons, but because criminals are rare; it is when a state is in decay that the multitude of crimes is a gaurantee of impunity.

Religious persecutors are not believers, they are rascals.

Watch a cat when it enters a room for the first time. It searches and smells about, it is not quiet for a moment, it trusts nothing until it has examined and made acquaintance with everything.

We do not know what really good or bad fortune is.

Taste is, so to speak, the microscope of the judgment.

Cities are the abyss of the human species.