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.

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

Universal silence is taken to imply the consent of the people.

The visible order of the universe proclaims a supreme intelligence.

Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.

The strength of the people is effective only if it is concentrated; it evaporates and is lost when it is dispersed, just as gunpowder scattered on the ground ignites only grain by grain.

Posterity is always just.