As the strata of the earth preserve in succession the living creatures of past epochs, so the shelves of libraries preserve in succession the errors of the past and their expositions, which like the former were very lively and made a great commotion in their own age but now stand petrified and stiff in a place where only the literary palaeontologist regards them.

To call the world God is not to explain it; it is only to enrich our language with a superfluous synonym.

One man is more concerned with the impression he makes on the rest of mankind, another with the impression the rest of mankind makes on him.

Education perverts the mind since we are directly opposing the natural development of our mind by obtaining ideas first and observations last. This is why so few men of learning have such sound common sense as is quite common among the illiterate.

To free a man from error is to give, not to take away. Knowledge that a thing is false is a truth. Error always does harm; sooner or later it will bring mischief to the man who harbors it.

Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure

Life is a language in which certain truths are conveyed to us; if we could learn them in some other way, we should not live.