Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it.
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
Social man lives constantly outside himself.
Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.
Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.
To be sane in a world of madmen is in itself madness.
The happiest is he who suffers least; the most miserable is he who enjoys least.
That which renders life burdensome to us generally arises from the abuse of it.
When my reason is afloat, my faith cannot long remain in suspense, and I believe in God as firmly as in any other truth whatever; in short, a thousand motives draw me to the consolatory side, and add the weight of hope to the equilibrium of reason.
Provided a man is not mad, he can be cured of every folly but vanity; there is no cure for this but experience, if indeed there is any cure for it at all.
Laws are always useful to those who possess and vexatious to those who have nothing.
It is easier to conquer than to administer. With enough leverage, a finger could overturn the world; but to support the world, one must have the shoulders of Hercules.
Do not judge, and you will never be mistaken.
Do not base your life on the judgments of others; first, because they are as likely to be mistaken as you are, and further, because you cannot know that they are telling you their true thoughts.
Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.
Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.
No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.
We must powder our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
Our greatest misfortunes come to us from ourselves.