Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

Any one reflecting upon the thought he has of the delight, which any present or absent thing is apt to produce in him, has the idea we call love.

There are a thousand ways to wealth, but only one way to heaven

Few men think, yet all will have opinions. Hence men’s opinions are superficial and confused.

Any one reflecting upon the thought he has of the delight, which any present or absent thing is apt to produce in him, has the idea we call love.

One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant.

There cannot be greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse.

It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.

I have spent more than half a lifetime trying to express the tragic moment.

Where all is but dream, reasoning and arguments are of no use, truth and knowledge nothing.

Our deeds disguise us. People need endless time to try on their deeds, until each knows the proper deeds for him to do. But every day, every hour, rushes by. There is no time.

Reverie is when ideas float in our mind without reflection or regard of the understanding.

We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.

Things of this world are in so constant a flux, that nothing remains long in the same state.

There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.

I attribute the little I know to my not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to my rule of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that form their own peculiar professions and pursuits.

The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property.

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

To love our neighbor as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society, that by that alone one might determine all the cases in social morality.

The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.