I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.

If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman... because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.

Brutes are deprived of the high advantages which we have; but they have some which we have not. They have not our hopes, but theyare without our fears; they are subject like us to death, but without knowing it; even most of them are more attentive than we to self-preservation, and do not make so bad a use of their passions.

To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.

If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.

If triangles had a god, he would have three sides.

For a country, everything will be lost when the jobs of an economist and a banker become highly respected professions.