The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre.

I am further of opinion that it would be better for us to have [no laws] at all than to have them in so prodigious numbers as we have.

The memory represents to us not what we choose but what it pleases.

Rash and incessant scolding runs into custom and renders itself despised.

Though we may be learned by another's knowledge, we can never be wise but by our own experience.

Great authors, when they write about causes, adduce not only those they think are true but also those they do not believe in, provided they have some originality and beauty. They speak truly and usefully enough if they speak ingeniously.

Shame on all eloquence which leaves us with a taste for itself and not for its substance.