I say to myself: "Who are you to measure infinite power?

Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.

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

Plants are shaped by cultivation and men by education. .. We are born weak, we need strength; we are born totally unprovided, we need aid; we are born stupid, we need judgment. Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when we are grown is given us by education.

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

As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State "What does it matter to me?" the State may be given up for lost.

To discover the rules of society that are best suited to nations, there would need to exist a superior intelligence, who could understand the passions of men without feeling any of them, who had no affinity with our nature but knew it to the full, whose happiness was independent of ours, but who would nevertheless make our happiness his concern, who would be content to wait in the fullness of time for a distant glory, and to labour in one age to enjoy the fruits in another. Gods would be needed to give men laws.