I long remained a child, and I am still one in many respects.

Generally we obtain very surely and very speedily what we are not too anxious to obtain.

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.

A citizen should render to the state all the services he can as soon as the sovereign demands them.

To study men, we must look close by; to study man, we must learn to look afar; if we are to discover essential characteristics, we must first observe differences.

Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like.

Men will argue more philosophically about the human heart; but women will read the heart of man better than they.