At sixteen, the adolescent knows about suffering because he himself has suffered, but he barely knows that other beings also suffer.

The political body, therefore, is also a moral being which has a will; and this general will, which tends always to the conservation and well-being of the whole and of each part of it ... is, for all members of the state ... the rule of what is just or unjust.

The English people think they are free; they are greatly deceived; they are free only during the election of members of Parliament.

The science of government is only a science of combinations, of applications, and of exceptions, according to times, places and circumstances.

The apparent ease with which children learn is their ruin.

Love childhood, indulge its sports, its pleasures, its delightful instincts. Who has not sometimes regretted that age when laughter was ever on the lips, and when the heart was ever at peace?

We have to have powder for our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.