The science of government is only a science of combinations, of applications, and of exceptions, according to times, places and circumstances.

There is a period in life when we go backwards as we advance.

I had been brought up in a church which decides everything and permits no doubts, so that having rejected one article of faith I was forced to reject the rest.

The empire of woman is an empire of softness, of address, of complacency. Her commands are caresses, her menaces are tears.

He thinks like a philosopher, but governs like a king.

The people is never corrupted, but it is often deceived.

Usurpers always bring about or select troublous times to get passed, under cover of the public terror, destructive laws, which the people would never adopt in cold blood. The moment chosen is one of the surest means of distinguishing the work of the legislator from that of the tyrant.