The world of reality has its limits the world of imagination is boundless.
Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.
All that time is lost which might be better employed.
Liberty is like those solid and tasty foods or those full-bodied wines which are appropriate for nourishing and strengthening robust constitutions that are used to them, but which overpower, ruin and...
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.
The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars,...
Among the many short cuts to science, we badly need someone to teach us the art of learning with difficulty.
Man was born free and everywhere he is in shackles.
There is not a single ill-doer who could not be turned to some good.
We cannot teach children the danger of lying to men without feeling as men, the greater danger of lying to children.
I hate books they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.
The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said This is mine, and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and mu...
In any case, frequent punishments are a sign of weakness or slackness in the government. There is no man so bad that he cannot be made good for something. No man should be put to death, even as an exa...
I have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.
A born king is a very rare being.
If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage the life and death of Jesus were those of a God.
We are born weak, we need strength helpless, we need aid foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education.
If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.
I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.
However great a man's natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.