Everything made by man may be destroyed by man; there are no ineffaceable characters except those engraved by nature; and nature makes neither princes nor rich men nor great lords.

Posterity is always just.

I think we cannot too strongly attack superstition, which is the disturber of society; nor too highly respect genuine religion, which is the support of it.

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

Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it.

Leave those vain moralists, my friend, and return to the depth of your soul: that is where you will always rediscover the source of the sacred fire which so often inflamed us with love of the sublime virtues; that is where you will see the eternal image of true beauty, the contemplation of which inspires us with a holy enthusiasm.

A paralyzed man who wants to walk OR an agile man who does not want to walk will both remain neutral in nature.