We need to be just before we are generous, as we need shirts before ruffles.

If it were not for the government, we should have nothing to laugh at in France.

Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.

All that I've learned, I've forgotten. The little that I still know, I've guessed.

All passions exaggerate; and they are passions only because they do exaggerate.

Public opinion is the worst of all opinions.

And so I leave this world, where the heart must either break or turn to lead (suicide note)