Laws are always useful to those who possess and vexatious to those who have nothing.

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

Physical evils destroy themselves, or they destroy us.

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

To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written.

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.

To abstain that we may enjoy is the epicurianism of reason.