 The English think they are free. They are free only during the election of members of parliament. |
| Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves. |
| I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about. |
| Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil. |
| Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity. |
| Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well. |
| The training of children is a profession, where we must know how to waste time in order to save it. |
| Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million. |
| Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome. |
| Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death. |
| Our affections as well as our bodies are in perpetual flux. |
| Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, intercourse with women and young people, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger. |
| Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is. |
| Childhood is the sleep of reason. |
| When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it. |
| Our greatest evils flow from ourselves. |
| The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the causes of its destruction. |
| You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one. |
| It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living. |
| Most nations, as well as people are impossible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow older. |
