The infant, on opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to the hour of his death never lose sight of it.

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.

How many famous and high-spirited heroes have lived a day too long?

We have to have powder for our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.

Self-love is an instrument useful but dangerous; it often wounds the hand which makes use of it, and seldom does good without doing harm.

The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had some one pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: "Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!

There is one further distinguishing characteristic of man which is very specific indeed and about which there can be no dispute, and that is the faculty of self-improvement - a faculty which, with the help of circumstance, progressively develops all our other faculties.