Man is free at the instant he wants to be.

Happiness is not the portion of man.

It is the poverty connected with our species which subordinates one man to another. It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.

As you know, the Inquisition is an admirable and wholly Christian invention to make the pope and the monks more powerful and turn a whole kingdom into hypocrites.

Answer me, you who believe that animals are only machines. Has nature arranged for this animal to have all the machinery of feelings only in order for it not to have any at all?

Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.