Everything I see about me is sowing the seeds of a revolution that is inevitable, though I shall not have the pleasure of seeing it. The lightning is so close at hand that it will strike at the first chance, and then there will be a pretty uproar. The young are fortunate, for they will see fine things.

I hold firmly to my original views. After all I am a philosopher.

It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.

The greatest consolation in life is to say what one thinks.

Great men have all been formed either before academies or independent of them.

We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.

The spirit of property doubles a man's strength.