I am more affected by the attractions of virtue than by the deformities of vice; I turn gently away from the wicked and I fly to meet the good. If there is in a literary work, in a character, in a picture, in a statue, a beautiful spot, that is where my eyes rest; I see only that, I remember only that, all the rest is well-nigh forgotten. What becomes of me when the whole work is beautiful!

Scepticism is the first step toward truth.

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

The man who first pronounced the barbarous word God ought to have been immediately destroyed.

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

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

Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.