What a chimaera then is man, what a novelty, what a monster, what chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, yet an imbecile earthworm; depository of truth, yet a sewer of uncertainty and error; pride and refuse of the universe. Who shall resolve this tangle?

We like security: we like the pope to be infallible in matters of faith, and grave doctors to be so in moral questions so that we can feel reassured.

You're basically killing each other to see who's got the better imaginary friend.

What a strange vanity painting is; it attracts admiration by resembling the original, we do not admire.

The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.

If man were happy, he would be the more so, the less he was diverted, like the saints and God.

We see neither justice nor injustice which does not change its nature with change in climate. Three degrees of latitude reverse all jurisprudence; a meridian decides the truth.