Fanaticism is just one step away from barbarism.

The world is the house of the strong. I shall not know until the end what I have lost or won in this place, in this vast gambling den where I have spent more than sixty years, dice box in hand, shaking the dice.

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

There is no true sovereign except the nation; there can be no true legislator except the people.

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

To be born in imbecility, in the midst of pain and crisis; to be the plaything of ignorance, error, need, sickness, wickedness, and passions; to return step by step to imbecility, from the time of lisping to that of doting; to live among knaves and charlatans of all kinds; to die between one man who takes your pulse and another who troubles your head; never to know where you come from, why you come and where you are going! That is what is called the most important gift of our parents and nature. Life.

What is a monster? A being whose survival is incompatible with the existing order.