Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
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 would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.
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.
If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.
He who blushes is already guilty.
I am not made like any of those I have seen. I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different.
Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of the world, but degenerates once it gets into the hands of man
القمع يريح ضميرنا ويجعلنا نشعر أننا دائماً على حق. يسرّنا أن نفحم أناساً لا يجرؤون على رفع صوتهم !
To renounce freedom is to renounce one's humanity, one's rights as a man and equally one's duties.
He who is the most slow in making a promise is the most faithful in the performance of it.
Whoever blushes is already guilty true innocence is ashamed of nothing.
Fame is but the breath of the people and that often unwholesome.
Liberty is like rich food and strong wine: the strong natures accustomed to them thrive and grow even stronger on them; but they deplete, inebriate and destroy the weak.
Teach your scholar to observe the phenomena of nature; you will soon rouse his curiosity, but if you would have it grow, do not be in too great a hurry to satisfy this curiosity. Put the problems befo...
Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
The more ingenious our apparatus, the coarser and more unskillful are our senses.
The more I study the works of men in their institutions, the more clearly I see that, in their efforts after independence, they become slaves, and that their very freedom is wasted in vain attempts to...
The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying 'this is mine', and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society.