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.

Isn't it better to have men being ungrateful than to miss a chance to do good?

The Christian religion teaches us to imitate a God that is cruel, insidious, jealous, and implacable in his wrath.

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

Does not vanity itself cease to be blamable, is it not even ennobled, when it is directed to laudable objects, when it confines itself to prompting us to great and generous actions?

There is less harm to be suffered in being mad among madmen than in being sane all by oneself.