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

I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.

Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.

There are two things to be considered with regard to any scheme. In the first place, Is it good in itself? In the second, Can it be easily put into practice?

Provided a man is not mad, he can be cured of every folly but vanity.

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.

Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect.