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!

All that time is lost which might be better employed.

If there wasn't a God we would have to invent one to keep people sane.

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

Interest is the spur of the people, but glory that of great souls.

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

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.