Only God and some few rare geniuses can keep forging ahead into novelty.

The Christian religion teaches us to imitate a God that is cruel, insidious, jealous, and implacable in his wrath.

Fanaticism is just one step away from barbarism.

Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank among the most sublime and useless truths.

Philosophy is as far separated from impiety as religion is from fanaticism.

This root [the potato], no matter how much you prepare it, is tasteless and floury. It cannot pass for an agreeable food, but it supplies a food sufficiently abundant and sufficiently healthy for men who ask only to sustain themselves. The potato is criticized with reason for being windy, but what matters windiness for the vigorous organisms of peasants and laborers?

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.