A great civilization is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars.

In its youth a people produce mythology and poetry; in its decadence, philosophy and logic.

History is so indifferently rich, that a case for almost any conclusion from it can be made by a selection of instances.

There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion.

Cultivate your garden… Do not depend upon teachers to educate you … follow your own bent, pursue your curiosity bravely, express yourself, make your own harmony… In the end, education, like happiness, is individual, and must come to us from life and from ourselves. There is no way; each pilgrim must make his own path. "Happiness," said Chamfort, "is not easily won; it is hard to find it in ourselves, and impossible to find it elsewhere.

Truth will not make us rich, but it will make us free.

It may be true that you can't fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.