We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death.
Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.
There is no one, says another, whom fortune does not visit once in his life; but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door, and flies out at the window.
Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.
Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.
If triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.
It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.
If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier that other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.
False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.
We wish to be happier than other people; and this is difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.
Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.
The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver.
The severity of the laws prevents their execution.
Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.
Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.
Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.
I have always observed that to succeed in the world a person must seem simple, yet wise.
What orators lack in depth, they make up to you in length.
This is how I define talent; it is a gift that God has given us in secret, which we reveal without knowing it.
Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.