It is obvious that the most despotic forms of social organization would be suitable for inert men who are satisfied with the situation fate has placed them in, and that the most abstract form of democratic theory would be practicable among sages guided only by their reason. The only problem is to what degree it is possible to excite or to contain the passions without endangering public happiness.

The greater part of what women write about women is mere sycophancy to man.

Anything that happens gradually is always irrevocable.

The sight of such a monument is like continual and stationary music, which one hears for one's good as one approaches it.

The thing that must be preserved in all situations whatever is the reputation of one's character.

The mind may be exhausted, but the language of the heart is inexhaustible.

[On Italian:] One may almost call it a language that talks of itself, and always seems more witty than its speakers.