Date: 1692, 1724

"Tho' you have not been with me long, said she, I have a particular Kindness for you, and am willing to tell you, that if you have a Mind to merit my Affection, you must entirely banish Abelhamar from your Heart."

— Aulnoy, Madame d' (Marie-Catherine) (1650/51-1705)

Date: 1692, 1724

"I love, 'tis true, and cannot flatter myself with ever being disengag'd from a Passion, which has so great an Empire over me; yet when Honour calls me I am ready to attend; and if I must give up my Life it shall be in so glorious a way as will do Honour to my Name."

— Aulnoy, Madame d' (Marie-Catherine) (1650/51-1705)

Date: 1692, 1724

"Madam, reply'd she, since they are your Majesty's Commands, I cannot refuse obeying; I own with the utmost Confusion, that till now, it has not been in my Power to banish from my Heart the fatal Idea of the Count of La Vagne."

— Aulnoy, Madame d' (Marie-Catherine) (1650/51-1705)

Date: 1692, 1724

"But alas! when Love commands, Reason must obey."

— Aulnoy, Madame d' (Marie-Catherine) (1650/51-1705)

Date: 1692, 1724

"I shall never forget his Ingratitude; he is still dear to me, I confess; yet I hope in time to banish him from my Heart."

— Aulnoy, Madame d' (Marie-Catherine) (1650/51-1705)

Date: 1747

"And where's the boasted liberty of man? / Chang'd are his lords indeed; and tyrant Lust / Usurps the just supremacy of Heav'n."

— Cardinal Melchior de Polignac (1661-1741)

Date: 1748, 1750

"l'interêt est le plus grande monarque de la Terre" [Self-interest is the strongest monarch in the world]

— Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689-1755)

Date: 1748, 1749

"If reason is the slave of depraved, or distracted sense, how then can it be expected, that at that time it should be governor?"

— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)

Date: 1748, 1749

"It is ridiculous to exclaim against the dominion of the will. For one order which it gives, a hundred times does it come under the yoke."

— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)

Date: 1755

"The sovereign power represents the head; the laws and customs are the brain, the source of the nerves and seat of the understanding, will and senses, of which the Judges and Magistrates are the organs: commerce, industry, and agriculture are the mouth and stomach which prepare the common subsist...

— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778)