Our greatest misfortunes come to us from ourselves.

The writings of women are always cold and pretty like themselves. There is as much wit as you may desire, but never any soul.

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

Childhood has it's own way of seeing, thinking, and feeling, and nothing is more foolish than to try to substitute ours for theirs.

Whoever blushes confesses guilt, true innocence never feels shame.

Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.

In truth, laws are always useful to those with possessions and harmful to those who have nothing; from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all possess something and none has too much.