It is almost impossible systematically to constitute a natural moral law. Nature has no principles. She furnishes us with no reason to believe that human life is to be respected. Nature, in her indifference, makes no distinction between good and evil.

Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.

Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.

It is not easy to be a pretty woman without causing mischief.

Custom alone regulates morals.

If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

The faculty of doubting is rare among men. A few choice spirits carry the germs of it in them, but these do not develop without training.