Other passions have objects to flatter them, and seem to content and satisfy them for a while; there is power in ambition, pleasure in luxury, and pelf in covetousness; but envy can gain nothing but vexation.

Nature clasps all her creatures in a universal embrace; there is not one of them which she has not plainly furnished with all means necessary to the conservation of its being.

Eloquence is an engine invented to manage and wield at will the fierce democracy, and, like medicine to the sick, is only employed in the paroxysms of a disordered state.

The premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty; he who has learnt to die has forgot to serve.

Nor is it enough to toughen up his soul; you must also toughen up his muscles.

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

A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom.