There is no one, says another, whom fortune does not visit once in his life; but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door, and flies out at the window.

There are countries where a man is worth nothing; there are others where he is worth less than nothing.

When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it and avarice possesses the whole community.

If you would be holy, instruct your children, because all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you.

Christians are beginning to lose the spirit of intolerance which animated them: experience has shown the error of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and of the persecution of those Christians in France whose belief differed a little from that of the king. They have realized that zeal for the advancement of religion is different from a due attachment to it; and that in order to love it and fulfil its behests, it is not necessary to hate and persecute those who are opposed to it.

Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.

An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.