To renounce freedom is to renounce one's humanity, one's rights as a man and equally one's duties.

I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.

The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the causes of its destruction.

I have suffered too much in this world not to hope for another.

Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.

He who pretends to look on death without fear lies. All men are afraid of dying, this is the great law of sentient beings, without which the entire human species would soon be destroyed.

Each member of the community gives himself to it at the instant of its constitution, just as he actually is, himself and all his forces, including all goods in his possession.