Innocence is ashamed of nothing.

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

In any case, frequent punishments are a sign of weakness or slackness in the government. There is no man so bad that he cannot be made good for something. No man should be put to death, even as an example, if he can be left to live without danger to society.

Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding we are forced to obey it.

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

I bold it impossible, that the great monarchies of Europe can subsist much longer; they all affect magnificence and splendor.

Nature wants children to be children before men... Childhood has its own seeing, thinking and feeling.