What I admire in Columbus is not his having discovered a new world but his having gone to search for it on the faith of an opinion.

Every soil does not produce every material.

Eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis. He snatched the lightning from the sky and the sceptre from tyrants.

The expenses of government, having for their object the interest of all, should be borne by everyone, and the more a man enjoys the advantages of society, the more he ought to hold himself honored in contributing to those expenses.

Scrupulous people are not suited to great affairs.

Gold and silver are constituted, by the nature of things, money, and universal money, independent of all convention, and of all laws.

All merchandize has the two essential properties of money, to measure and to represent all value: and in this sense all merchandize is money.

It is not error which opposes the progress of truth it is indolence, obstinacy, the spirit of routine, every thing which favors inaction.

All is more or less proper to serve as a common measure, in proportion as it is more or less in general use, of a more similar quality, and more easy to be divided into aliquot parts. All is more or less applicable for the purpose of a general pledge of exchange, in proportion as it is less susceptible of decay or alteration in quantity or quality.

The whole mass of humanity . . . marches constantly, though slowly, toward greater perfection.

All money is essentially merchandize.