My ideas are my whores.

I have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a thick forest. Up comes a theologian and blows it out.

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

The good of the people must be the great purpose of government. By the laws of nature and of reason, the governors are invested with power to that end. And the greatest good of the people is liberty. It is to the state what health is to the individual.

It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.

The philosopher forms his principles on an infinity of particular observations. He does not confuse truth with plausibility, he takes for truth what is true, for false what is false, for doubtful what is doubtful, and probable what is probable. The philosophical spirit is thus a spirit of observation and accuracy.

The fact is that she was terribly undressed and I was extremely undressed too. The fact is that I still had my hand where she didn't have anything and she had hers where the same wasn't quite true of me. The fact is that I found myself underneath her and consequently she found herself on top of me.