Nothing is so important to man as his own state; nothing is so formidable to him as eternity. And thus it is unnatural that thereshould be men indifferent to the loss of their existence and to the perils of everlasting suffering.

The great mass of people judge well of things, for they are in natural ignorance, which is man's true state.

Bless yourself with holy water, have Masses said, and so on; by a simple and natural process this will make you believe, and will dull you - will quiet your proudly critical intellect.

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.

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.

Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.

Most of the evils of life arise from man's being unable to sit still in a room.