General abstract truth is the most precious of all blessings; without it, man is blind; it is the eye of reason.

Every man having been born free and master of himself, no one else may under any pretext whatever subject him without his consent. To assert that the son of a slave is born a slave is to assert that he is not born a man.

Liberty may be gained, but can never be recovered.

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.

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

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.