I have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.

Equality is deemed by many a mere speculative chimera, which can never be reduced to practice. But if the abuse is inevitable, does it follow that we ought not to try at least to mitigate it? It is precisely because the force of things tends always to destroy equality that the force of the legislature must always tend to maintain it.

The world is the book of women. Whatever knowledge they may possess is more commonly acquired by observation than by reading.

The man who gets the most out of life is not the one who has lived it longest, but the one who has felt life most deeply.

Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.

Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.

It has always pleased me to read while eating if I have no companion; it gives me the society I lack. I devour alternately a page and a mouthful; it is as though my book were dining with me.