A constitution that is made for all nations is made for none.

Nothing is necessary except God, and nothing is less necessary than pain.

I don't know what a scoundrel is like, but I know what a respectable man is like, and it's enough to make one's flesh creep.

Man in general, if reduced to himself, is too wicked to be free.

It is not the mediocrity of women's education which makes their weakness; it is their weakness which necessarily causes their mediocrity.

Prejudice does not mean false ideas, but only ... opinions adopted before examination.

War is thus divine in itself, since it is a law of the world. War is divine through its consequences of a supernatural nature which are as much general as particular. War is divine in the mysterious glory that surrounds it and in the no less inexplicable attraction that draws us to it. War is divine by the manner in which it breaks out.