But sure there is need of other remedies than dreaming, a weak contention of art against nature.

No one should be subjected to force over things which belonged to him.

I do not believe, from what I have been told about this people, that there is anything barbarous or savage about them, except that we all call barbarous anything that is contrary to our own habits.

Disappointment and feebleness imprint upon us a cowardly and valetudinarian virtue.

Truly it is reasonable to make a great distinction between the faults that come from our weakness and those that come from our wickedness.

Men throw themselves on foreign assistances to spare their own, which, after all, are the only certain and sufficient ones.

The human face is a weak guarantee; yet it deserves some consideration. And if I had to whip the wicked, I would do so more severely to those who belied and betrayed the promises that nature had implanted on their brows; I would punish malice more harshly when it was hidden under a kindly appearance.