Oh Liberty! Liberty! What crimes are committed in your name!
If we do not die for liberty, we shall soon have nothing left to do but weep for her.
The more I see of men, the more I admire dogs. - Jeanne
It is impossible to rise to freedom, from the midst of corruptions, without strong convulsions. They are the salutary crises of a serious disease. We are in want of a terrible political fever, to carry off our foul humors.
It is for the wise people who delight in humanity, praise justice, despise their flatterers, and respect the truth.
The feeble tremble before opinion, the foolish defy it, the wise judge it, the skillful direct it.
The feeble howl with the wolves, bray with the asses, and bleat with the sheep.
People who know how to employ themselves, always find leisure moments, while those who do nothing are forever in a hurry.
Selfishness, not love, is the actuating motive of the gallant.
Ennui is the disease of hearts without feeling, and of minds without resources.
It would have cost me more trouble to escape from injustice, than it does to submit to it.
A fondness for satire indicates a mind pleased with irritating others; for myself, I never could find amusement in killing flies.
I have been reading Madame Roland's memoirs and have come to the conclusion that she was a very over-rated woman; snobbish, vain, sentimental, envious - rather a German type. Her last days before her execution were spent in chronicling petty social snubs or triumphs of many years back. She was a democrat chiefly from envy of the noblesse.
I was not always free from melancholy; but even melancholy had its charms.
Deep joy is a serene and sober emotion, rarely evinced in open merriment.