Shakespeare's fault is not the greatest into which a poet may fall. It merely indicates a deficiency of taste.

What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.

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.

I like better for one to say some foolish thing upon important matters than to be silent. That becomes the subject of discussion and dispute, and the truth is discovered.

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.

Those who fear the facts will forever try to discredit the fact-finders.

It seems to me that if one had kept silence up to now regarding religion, people would still be submerged in the most grotesque and dangerous superstition ... regarding government, we would still be groaning under the bonds of feudal government ... regarding morals, we would still be having to learn what is virtue and what is vice. To forbid all these discussions, the only ones worthy of occupying a good mind, is to perpetuate the reign of ignorance and barbarism.