From the first moment of life, men ought to begin learning to deserve to live; and, as at the instant of birth we partake of the rights of citizenship, that instant ought to be the beginning of the exercise of our duty.

A man speaks of what he knows, a woman of what pleases her: the one requires knowledge, the other taste.

He who eats in idleness that which he himself has not earned, steals it; and a capitalist whom the state pays for doing nothing differs little in my eyes from a brigand, who lives at the expense of passers-by.

A man says what he knows, a woman says what will please.

We can never put ourselves in the shoes of children; we cannot fathom their thoughts, we lend them ours; and always following ourown reasoning, we stuff their heads with extravagance and error.

Girls must be thwarted early in life.

To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.