He who pretends to look on death without fear lies. All men are afraid of dying, this is the great law of sentient beings, without which the entire human species would soon be destroyed.

The most absolute authority is that which penetrates into a man's innermost being and concerns itself no less with his will than with his actions.

There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character.

The members of a body-politic call it "the state" when it is passive, "the sovereign" when it is active, and a "power" when they compare it with others of its kind. Collectively they use the title "people," and they refer to one another individually as "citizens" when speaking of their participation in the authority of the sovereign, and as "subjects" when speaking of their subordination to the laws of the state.

It is in man's heart that the life of nature's spectacle exists; to see it, one must feel it.

Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.

It is as if my heart and my brain did not belong to the same person. Feelings come quicker than lightning and fill my soul, but they bring me no illumination; they burn me and dazzle me.