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

Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man.

Gentleness and peacefulness regulate our proceedings; theirs are dictated by fury. We employ reason, they accumulate faggots. They preach nothing but love, and breathe nothing but blood. Their words are humane, but their hearts are cruel.

I am wholly yours - you are everything to me; we will sustain each other in all the ills of life it may please fate to inflict upon us; you will soothe my troubles; I will comfort you in yours.

All children are essentially criminal.

A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence scepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone.

We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us.