En vérité, je ne songeais guère à faire ni comme les autres ni autrement qu'eux. Je désirais sincèrement de faire ce qui était bien. - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Destitute of valid reasons to justify and sufficient strength to defend himself, able to crush individuals with ease, but easily crushed himself by a troop of bandits, one against all, and incapable, on account of mutual jealousy, of joining with his equals against numerous enemies united by the common hope of plunder, the rich man, thus urged by necessity, conceived at length the profoundest plan that ever entered the mind of man: this was to employ in his favour the forces of those who attacked him, to make allies of his adversaries, to inspire them with different maxims, and to give them other institutions as favourable to himself as the law of nature was unfavourable.

Das Glück der Menschen ist also hienieden nur ein negativer Zustand; es lässt sich nur nach der geringeren Anzahl der Übel ermessen, unter denen wir leiden.

Childhood has its own way of seeing, thinking, and feeling, and nothing is more foolish than to try to substitute ours for theirs.