The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it.
Category Archive: 1712
Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.
We pity in others only the those evils which we ourselves have experienced.
Force does not constitute right… obedience is due only to legitimate powers.
I only see clearly what I remember.
Ordinary readers, forgive my paradoxes: one must make them when one reflects; and whatever you may say, I prefer being a man with paradoxes than a man with prejudices.
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.
Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well.
Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.
Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.