"The custom of having many wives is a bad one, not so much on account of the inconvenience it causes to the husbands, as on account of that which it creates for the wives."

"The people in monarchies are, generally speaking, more capable of an attachment to the prince, than to the state."

"The custom of exposing children was very frequent among the Greeks, because they had no families."

"We should not be surprised to see the great men of history so often overcome by fortune. It is because they were not great enough to despise it."

"The severity of punishments is more dangerous to liberty than the state of nature itself."