Two things, almost incompatible, are united in me in a manner which I am unable to understand: a very ardent temperament, lively and tumultuous passions, and, at the same time, slowly developed and confused ideas, which never present themselves until it is too late. One might say that my heart and my mind do not belong to the same person.

The general will is always right.

Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.

She was dull, unattractive, couldn't tell the time, count money or tie her own shoe laces... But I loved her

Luxury either comes of riches or makes them necessary; it corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the poor by covetousness.

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.

Ah, that is a perfume in which I delight; when they roast coffee near my house, I hasten to open the door to take in all the aroma.