What a fine comedy this world would be if one did not play a part in it.

I feel, I think, I judge; therefore, a part of organized matter like me is capable of feeling, thinking, and judging.

A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced.

They mistake the first manifestations of a developing sexual nature for the voice of God calling them to Himself; and it is precisely when nature is inciting them that they embrace a fashion of life contrary to nature's wish.

Shakespeare's fault is not the greatest into which a poet may fall. It merely indicates a deficiency of taste.

One must be oneself very little of a philosopher not to feel that the finest privilege of our reason consists in not believing in anything by the impulsion of a blind and mechanical instinct, and that it is to dishonour reason to put it in bonds as the Chaldeans did. Man is born to think for himself.

Anyone who takes it upon himself, on his private authority, to break a bad law, thereby authorizes everyone else to break the good ones.