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

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

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education.

Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them.

Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.

I loved too sincerely, too completely, I venture to say, to be able to be happy easily.

Conscience is the voice of the soul, the passions are the voice of the body. Is it astonishing that often these two languages contradict each other, and then to which must we listen? Too often reason deceives us; we have only too much acquired the right of refusing to listen to it; but conscience never deceives us; it is the true guide of man; it is to man what instinct is to the body; which follows it, obeys nature, and never is afraid of going astray.