Jewish authors would never have invented either that style nor that morality; and the Gospel has marks of truth so great, so striking, so utterly inimitable, that the invention of it would be more astonishing than the hero.

Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well.

Liberty is not to be found in any form of government; she is in the heart of the free man; he bears her with him everywhere.

The freedom of Mankind does not lie in the fact that can do what we want, but that we do not have to do that which we do not want.

Leave those vain moralists, my friend, and return to the depth of your soul: that is where you will always rediscover the source of the sacred fire which so often inflamed us with love of the sublime virtues; that is where you will see the eternal image of true beauty, the contemplation of which inspires us with a holy enthusiasm.

The empire of woman is an empire of softness, of address, of complacency. Her commands are caresses, her menaces are tears.

Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.