I had been brought up in a church which decides everything and permits no doubts, so that having rejected one article of faith I was forced to reject the rest.

It is easier to conquer than to administer. With enough leverage, a finger could overturn the world; but to support the world, one must have the shoulders of Hercules.

It is a mania shared by philosophers of all ages to deny what exists and to explain what does not exist.

Liberty is not to be found in any form of government; she is in the heart of the free man; he bears her with him everywhere.

At Genoa, the word Liberty may be read over the front of the prisons and on the chains of the galley-slaves. This application of the device is good and just. It is indeed only malefactors of all estates who prevent the citizen from being free. In the country in which all such men were in the galleys, the most perfect liberty would be enjoyed.

Teach by doing whenever you can, and only fall back upon words when doing it is out of the question.

Abstaining so as really to enjoy, is the epicurism, the very perfection, of reason.