Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.

The general will is always right.

There is a period in life when we go backwards as we advance.

The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had some one pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: "Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!

Definitions would be good things if we did not use words to make them.

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

I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.