A man who is not a fool can rid himself of every folly except vanity.

Luxury either comes of riches or makes them necessary; it corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the poor by covetousness.

The science of government is only a science of combinations, of applications, and of exceptions, according to times, places and circumstances.

The French painter Rousseau was once asked why he put a naked woman on a red sofa in the middle of his jungle pictures. He answered, 'I needed a bit of red there.'

Government originated in the attempt to find a form of association that defends and protects the person and property of each with the common force of all.

Not all the subtilties of metaphysics can make me doubt a moment of the immortality of the soul, and of a beneficent Providence. I feel it, I believe it, I desire it, I hope it, and will defend it to my last breath.

Conscience is the voice of the soul, the passions are the voice of the body. It is strange that these voices often contradict each other?