These are the days that try man's heart.

To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.

Liberty cannot be purchased by a wish.

The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

The countries the most famous and the most respected of antiquity are those which distinguished themselves by promoting and patronizing science, and on the contrary those which neglected or discouraged it are universally denominated rude and barbarous.

They took care to represent government as a thing made up of mysteries, which only themselves understood, and they hid from the understanding of the nation, the only thing that was beneficial to know, namely, that government is nothing more than a national association acting on the principles of society.