I have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a thick forest. Up comes a theologian and blows it out.

Only God and some few rare geniuses can keep forging ahead into novelty.

It seems to me that if one had kept silence up to now regarding religion, people would still be submerged in the most grotesque and dangerous superstition ... regarding government, we would still be groaning under the bonds of feudal government ... regarding morals, we would still be having to learn what is virtue and what is vice. To forbid all these discussions, the only ones worthy of occupying a good mind, is to perpetuate the reign of ignorance and barbarism.

I have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a thick forest. Up comes a theologian and blows it out.

There is no true sovereign except the nation; there can be no true legislator except the people.

Scepticism is the first step towards truth.

As long as the centuries continue to unfold, the number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from the direct study of the whole universe. It will be almost as convenient to search for some bit of truth concealed in nature as it will be to find it hidden away in an immense multitude of bound volumes.