 Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery. |
| All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else. |
| Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences. |
| If particulars are to have meaning, there must be universals. |
| Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments. |
| There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot. |
| It is clear to everyone that astronomy at all events compels the soul to look upwards, and draws it from the things of this world to the other. |
| To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less. |
| The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles. |
| Whatever deceives men seems to produce a magical enchantment. |
| The wisest have the most authority. |
| Life must be lived as play. |
| He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it. |
| Necessity... the mother of invention. |
| Wealth is well known to be a great comforter. |
| The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom. |
| The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort. |
| Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens. |
| Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class. |
| No trace of slavery ought to mix with the studies of the freeborn man. No study, pursued under compulsion, remains rooted in the memory. |
