To be born in imbecility, in the midst of pain and crisis; to be the plaything of ignorance, error, need, sickness, wickedness, and passions; to return step by step to imbecility, from the time of lisping to that of doting; to live among knaves and charlatans of all kinds; to die between one man who takes your pulse and another who troubles your head; never to know where you come from, why you come and where you are going! That is what is called the most important gift of our parents and nature. Life.

For me, my thoughts are my prostitutes.

I like better for one to say some foolish thing upon important matters than to be silent. That becomes the subject of discussion and dispute, and the truth is discovered.

Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man.

He whom we call a gentleman is no longer the man of Nature.

Those who fear the facts will forever try to discredit the fact-finders.

Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.