It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false.

The art of subversion, of revolution, is to dislodge established customs by probing down to their origins in order to show how they lack authority and justice.

What can be seen on earth points to neither the total absence nor the obvious presence of divinity, but to the presence of a hidden God. Everything bears this mark.

When we see an effect happen always in the same manner, we infer that it takes place by a natural necessity; as, for instance, that the sun will rise to morrow; but nature often deceives us, and will not submit to its own rules.

I can readily conceive of a man without hands or feet; and I could conceive of him without a head, if experience had not taught me that by this he thinks, Thought then, is the essence of man, and without this we cannot conceive of him.

The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it.

The present is never the mark of our designs. We use both past and present as our means and instruments, but the future only as our object and aim.