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

In general, children, like men, and men, like children, prefer entertainment to education.

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

Those authors into whose hands nature has placed a magic wand, with which they no sooner touch us than we forget the unhappiness in life, than the darkness leaves our soul, and we are reconciled to existence, should be placed among the benefactors of the human race.

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

Distance is a great promoter of admiration.

A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced.