There are no bad books any more than there are ugly women.

The heart errs like the head; its errors are not any the less fatal, and we have more trouble getting free of them because of their sweetness.

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.

Word-carpentry is like any other kind of carpentry: you must join your sentences smoothly.

The wonder is, not that the field of stars is so vast, but that man has measured it.

For a man’s life would become intolerable, if he knew what was going to happen to him. He would be made aware of future evils, and would suffer their agonies in advance, while he would get no joy of present blessings since he would know how they would end. Ignorance is the necessary condition of human happiness, and it has to be admitted that on the whole mankind observes that condition well. We are almost entirely ignorant of ourselves; absolutely of others. In ignorance, we find our bliss; in illusions, our happiness.

I do not know any reading more easy, more fascinating, more delightful than a catalogue.