Gentleness and peacefulness regulate our proceedings; theirs are dictated by fury. We employ reason, they accumulate faggots. They preach nothing but love, and breathe nothing but blood. Their words are humane, but their hearts are cruel.

First move me, astonish me, break my heart, let me tremble, weep, stare, be enraged-only then regale my eyes.

What a fine comedy this world would be if one did not play a part in it.

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

I have not the hope of being immortal, because the desire of it has not given me that vanity.

All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings... We must run roughshod over all these ancient puerilities, overturn the barriers that reason never erected, give back to the arts and sciences the liberty that is so precious to them.

You can be sure that a painter reveals himself in his work as much as and more than a writer does in his.