Pantheism is only a polite form of atheism.

This world could not have been the work of an all-loving being, but that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings.

It takes place, by and large, with the same sort of necessity as a tree brings forth fruit, and demands of the world no more than a soil on which the individual can flourish.

Many books serve merely to show how many ways there are of being wrong, and how far astray you yourself would go if you followed their guidance. You should read only when your own thoughts dry up.

We deceive and flatter no one by such delicate artificies as we do our own selves.

In reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another's thoughts.

Anyone can squash a bug but all professors of this world couldn't build one.