Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.

Frequent punishments are always a sign of weakness or laziness on the part of a government.

There is no folly of which a man who is not a fool cannot get rid except vanity; of this nothing cures a man except experience of its bad consequences, if indeed anything can cure it.

Sovereigns always see with pleasure a taste for the arts of amusement and superfluity, which do not result in the exportation of bullion, increase among their subjects. They very well know that, besides nourishing that littleness of mind which is proper to slavery, the increase of artificial wants only binds so many more chains upon the people.

Never exceed your rights, and they will soon become unlimited.

Money is the seed of money.

General abstract truth is the most precious of all blessings; without it, man is blind; it is the eye of reason.