"We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death."

"Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it."

"The less men think, the more they talk."

"In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state."

"Peace is a natural effect of trade."

"I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise."

"The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy."

"Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free."

"Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half."

"Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones."

"Laws undertake to punish only overt acts."

"If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides."

"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."

"I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve."

"Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies."

"In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed."

"The reason the Romans built their great paved highways was because they had such inconvenient footwear."

"Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death."

"No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ."

"Useless laws weaken the necessary laws."

"The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions."

"There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion."

"The severity of the laws prevents their execution."

"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."

"If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, and that is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are."

"An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations."

"Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed."

"To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them."

"There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice."

"Liberty is the right to do what the law permits."

"It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption."

"The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver."

"To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight."

"An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war."