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

What is a monster? A being whose survival is incompatible with the existing order.

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

Which is the greater merit, to enlighten the human race, which remains forever, or to save one's fatherland, which is perishable?

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

You risk just as much in being credulous as in being suspicious.

Whatever dressing one gives to mushrooms, to whatever sauces our Apiciuses put them, they are not really good but to be sent back to the dungheap where they are born.