Maxims are to the intellect what laws are to actions; they do not enlighten, but they guide and direct, and, although themselves blind, are protective.

We are all of us more or less echoes, repeating involuntarily the virtues, the defects, the movements, and the characters of those among whom we live.

Music has seven letters, writing has twenty-six notes

We find little in a book but what we put there. But in great books, the mind finds room to put many things.

It is not my words that I polish, but my ideas.

The lively phraseology of Montesquieu was the result of long meditation. His words, as light as wings, bear on them grave reflections.

Let us have justice, and then we shall have enough liberty!