Genius is present in every age, but the men carrying it within them remain benumbed unless extraordinary events occur to heat up and melt the mass so that it flows forth.
Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.
There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.
All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs.
Only passions, and great passions, can raise the soul to great things. Without them there is no sublimity, either in morals or in creativity. Art returns to infancy, and virtue becomes small-minded.
Power acquired by violence is only an usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.
From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.
There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law.
