The French painter Rousseau was once asked why he put a naked woman on a red sofa in the middle of his jungle pictures. He answered, 'I needed a bit of red there.'

Girls must be thwarted early in life.

The ever-recurring law of necessity soon teaches a man to do what he does not like, so as to avert evils which he would dislike still more... this foresight, well or ill used, is the source of all the wisdom or the wretchedness of mankind.

We are reduced to asking others what we are. We never dare to ask ourselves.

Many men, seemingly impelled by fortune, hasten forward to meet misfortune half way.

Among the many short cuts to science, we badly need someone to teach us the art of learning with difficulty.

I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.

When my reason is afloat, my faith cannot long remain in suspense, and I believe in God as firmly as in any other truth whatever; in short, a thousand motives draw me to the consolatory side, and add the weight of hope to the equilibrium of reason.

We do not know what is really good or bad fortune.

Whoso blushes is guilty already; true innocence is ashamed of nothing.

Anticipation and Hope are born twins.

Innocence is ashamed of nothing.

The sword wears out its sheath, as it is sometimes said. That is my story. My passions have made me live, and my passions have killed me. What passions, it may be asked. Trifles, the most childish things in the world. Yet they affected me as much as if the possessions of Helen, or the throne of the Universe, had been at stake.

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 example, if he can be left to live without danger to society.

One may live tranquilly in a dungeon; but does life consist in living quietly?

Not all the subtilties of metaphysics can make me doubt a moment of the immortality of the soul, and of a beneficent Providence. I feel it, I believe it, I desire it, I hope it, and will defend it to my last breath.

Nations, like men, are teachable only in their youth; with age they become incorrigible. Once customs are established and prejudices rooted, reform is a dangerous and fruitless enterprise; a people cannot bear to see its evils touched, even if only to be eradicated.

A man says what he knows, a woman says what will please.

There are two things to be considered with regard to any scheme. In the first place, Is it good in itself? In the second, Can it be easily put into practice?

The empire of woman is an empire of softness, of address, of complacency. Her commands are caresses, her menaces are tears.