Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect.

The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the causes of its destruction.

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?''

Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.

It is not the criminal things that are hardest to confess, but the ridiculous and the shameful.

Let the trumpet of the day of judgment sound when it will, I shall appear with this book in my hand before the Sovereign Judge, and cry with a loud voice, This is my work, there were my thoughts, and thus was I. I have freely told both the good and the bad, have hid nothing wicked, added nothing good.

Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to save it.

To live is not breathing it is action.

Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding we are forced to obey it.

Whoever blushes confesses guilt, true innocence never feels shame.