One may demand of me that I should seek truth, but not that I should find it

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

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

This root [the potato], no matter how much you prepare it, is tasteless and floury. It cannot pass for an agreeable food, but it supplies a food sufficiently abundant and sufficiently healthy for men who ask only to sustain themselves. The potato is criticized with reason for being windy, but what matters windiness for the vigorous organisms of peasants and laborers?

Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.

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.

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.