Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free. - Montesquieu

Nature, in her wisdom, seems to have arranged it so that men's stupidities should be ephemeral, and books make them immortal. A fool ought to be content with having exasperated everyone around him, but he insists on tormenting future generations; he wants his foolishness to overcome the oblivion which he might have enjoyed like a tomb; he wants posterity to be informed that he existed, and to be aware for ever that he was a fool.

If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, and that is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.

Mais, ma soeur, au nom de Dieu, qui nous éclaire, recevez ce livre sacré que je vous porte; c'est le livre de notre législateur Zoroastre; lisez-le sans prévention; recevez dans votre coeur les rayons de lumière qui vous éclaireront en le lisant;