It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.

The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion.

In any country where talent and virtue produce no advancement, money will be the national god. Its inhabitants will either have to possess money or make others believe that they do. Wealth will be the highest virtue, poverty the greatest vice.

All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings.

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.

At an early age I sucked up the milk of Homer, Virgil, Horace, Terence, Anacreon, Plato and Euripides, diluted with that of Moses and the prophets.

Philosophy is as far separated from impiety as religion is from fanaticism.