The mechanism that directs government cannot be virtuous, because it is impossible to thwart every crime, to protect oneself from every criminal without being criminal too; that which directs corrupt mankind must be corrupt itself; and it will never be by means of virtue, virtue being inert and passive, that you will maintain control over vice, which is ever active: the governor must be more energetic than the governed.

The most fortunate of persons is he who has the most means to satisfy his vagaries.

The more defects a man may have, the older he is, the less lovable, the more resounding his success.

The impossibility of outraging nature is the greatest anguish man can know.

Sensual excess drives out pity in man.

It is not my mode of thought that has caused my misfortunes, but the mode of thought of others.

So long as the laws remain such as they are today, employ some discretion: loud opinion forces us to do so; but in privacy and silence let us compensate ourselves for that cruel chastity we are obliged to display in public.