Let it not, therefore, be said that the Sovereign is not subject to the laws of his State; since the contrary is a true proposition of the right of nations, which flattery has sometimes attacked but good princes have always defended as the tutelary divinity of their dominions. How much more legitimate is it to say with the wise Plato, that the perfect felicity of a kingdom consists in the obedience of subjects to their prince, and of the prince to the laws, and in the laws being just and constantly directed to the public good!

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

Liberty is not to be found in any form of government; she is in the heart of the free man; he bears her with him everywhere.

I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself.

Nature wants children to be children before men... Childhood has its own seeing, thinking and feeling.

The freedom of Mankind does not lie in the fact that can do what we want, but that we do not have to do that which we do not want.

Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, intercourse with women and young people, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger.