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

A thing is not proved because no one has ever questioned it... Skepticism is the first step toward truth.

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.

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

I am more affected by the attractions of virtue than by the deformities of vice; I turn gently away from the wicked and I fly to meet the good. If there is in a literary work, in a character, in a picture, in a statue, a beautiful spot, that is where my eyes rest; I see only that, I remember only that, all the rest is well-nigh forgotten. What becomes of me when the whole work is beautiful!

If there are one hundred thousand damned souls for one saved soul, the devil has always the advantage without having given up his son to death.

If there were a reason for preferring the Christian religion to natural religion, it would be because the former offers us, on the nature of God and man, enlightenment that the latter lacks. Now, this is not at all the case; for Christianity, instead of clarifying, gives rise to an infinite multitude of obscurities and difficulties.