Piety is different from superstition. To carry piety to the extent of superstition is to destroy it. The heretics reproach us with this superstitious submission. It is doing what they reproach us with.

Being unable to cure death, wretchedness, and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.

There are two excesses: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason. The supreme achievement of reason is to realise that there is a limit to reason. Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it. It is merely feeble if it does not go as far as to realise that.

Amusement that is excessive and followed only for its own sake, allures and deceives us.

Jurisdiction is not given for the sake of the judge, but for that of the litigant.

The two principles of truth, reason and senses, are not only both not genuine, but are engaged in mutual deception. The senses deceive reason through false appearances, and the senses are disturbed by passions, which produce false impressions.

Man's grandeur is that he knows himself to be miserable.