What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.

It is the last lesson of modern science, that the highest simplicity of structure is produced, not by few elements, but by the highest complexity.

The intelligent have a right over the ignorant, namely, the right of instructing them. The right punishment of one out of tune, isto make him play in tune; the fine which the good, refusing to govern, ought to pay, is, to be governed by a worse man; that his guards shall not handle gold and silver, but shall be instructed that there is gold and silver in their souls, which will make men willing to give them every thing which they need.

The State must follow, and not lead, the character and progress of the citizen.

Talents differ; all is well and wisely put; If I cannot carry forests on my back, Neither can you crack a nut.

The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most. The power which the sea requires in the sailor makes a man of him very fast, and the change of shores and population clears his head of much nonsense of his wigwam.

Is the parent better than the child into whom he has cast his ripened being? Whence, then, this worship of the past?