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.

If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.

My ideas are my whores.

The philosopher forms his principles on an infinity of particular observations. He does not confuse truth with plausibility, he takes for truth what is true, for false what is false, for doubtful what is doubtful, and probable what is probable. The philosophical spirit is thus a spirit of observation and accuracy.

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.

When we know to read our own hearts, we acquire wisdom of the heartsof others.

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.