Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to guide me. A stranger appears and says to me: 'My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.' This stranger is a theologian.

There is only one virtue, justice; only one duty, to be happy; only one corollary, not to overvalue life and not to fear death.

The good of the people must be the great purpose of government. By the laws of nature and of reason, the governors are invested with power to that end. And the greatest good of the people is liberty. It is to the state what health is to the individual.

If you disturb the colors of the rainbow, the rainbow is no longer beautiful.

Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.

Scepticism is the first step towards truth.

If reason be a gift of Heaven, and we can say as much of faith, Heaven has certainly made us two gifts not only incompatible, but in direct contradiction to each other. In order to solve the difficulty, we are compelled to say either that faith is a chimera or that reason is useless.