“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.”
“Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.”
“Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.”
“Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.”
“The severity of the laws prevents their execution.”
“If triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.”
“We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death.”
“What orators lack in depth, they make up to you in length.”
“Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.”
“The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver.”
“Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.”
“It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.”
“I have always observed that to succeed in the world a person must seem simple, yet wise.”
“Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.”
“Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.”
“This is how I define talent; it is a gift that God has given us in secret, which we reveal without knowing it.”
“We wish to be happier than other people; and this is difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.”
“There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”