People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

I am not made like any of those I have seen. I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different.

I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.

What wisdom can you find greater than kindness.

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.

To be sane in a world of madman is in itself madness.

Every person has a right to risk their own life for the preservation of it.

To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written.

Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain.

Why should we build our happiness on the opinons of others, when we can find it in our own hearts?

Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.

Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.

Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of the world, but degenerates once it gets into the hands of man

All my misfortunes come of having thought too well of my fellows.

I perceive God everywhere in His works. I sense Him in me; I see Him all around me.

...in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.

I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.

Trust your heart rather than your head.

I have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.

The truth brings no man a fortune.

There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend.

Love, known to the person by whom it is inspired, becomes more bearable.

As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State "What does it matter to me?" the State may be given up for lost.

There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character.

We must powder our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.

Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.

A born king is a very rare being.

It is as if my heart and my brain did not belong to the same person. Feelings come quicker than lightning and fill my soul, but they bring me no illumination; they burn me and dazzle me.

To renounce freedom is to renounce one's humanity, one's rights as a man and equally one's duties.

She was dull, unattractive, couldn't tell the time, count money or tie her own shoe laces... But I loved her

Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.

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.

Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like.

To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.

In a well governed state, there are few punishments, not because there are many pardons, but because criminals are rare; it is when a state is in decay that the multitude of crimes is a guarantee of impunity.

There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.

I feel an indescribable ecstasy and delirium in melting, as it were, into the system of being, in identifying myself with the whole of nature..

The only moral lesson which is suited for a child--the most important lesson for every time of life--is this: 'Never hurt anybody.

If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.

Laws are always useful to those who possess and vexatious to those who have nothing.

All wickedness comes from weakness. The child is wicked only because he is weak. Make him strong; he will be good. He who could do everything would never do harm.

The "sociable" man, always outside himself, is capable of living only in the opinions of others and, so to speak, derives the sentiment of his own existence solely from their judgment.

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

There is no subjection so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom.

I say to myself: "Who are you to measure infinite power?

Truth is an homage that the good man pays to his own dignity.