Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.

That which renders life burdensome to us generally arises from the abuse of it.

My bad head cannot adjust itself to the way things are.... If I want to depict spring, it has to be in wintertime; if I want to describe a beautiful landscape, I must be enclosed within walls; and I have said a hundred times that if I were put in the Bastille, there I would paint a picture of liberty.

He who blushes is already guilty.

The truths of the Scriptures are so marked and inimitable, that the inventor would be more of a miraculous character than the hero.

The want of occupation is no less the plague of society than of solitude.

To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written.