Philosophy alone can boast (and perhaps it is no more than the boast of philosophy), that her gentle hand is able to eradicate from the human mind the latent and deadly principle of fanaticism.

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.

Language is the leading principle which unites or separates the tribes of mankind.

The most distinguished merit of those two officers was their respective prowess, of the one in the combats of Bacchus, of the other in those of Venus.

[Instead] of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.

The frequent repetition of miracles serves to provoke, where it does not subdue, the reason of mankind.

[Peace] cannot be honorable or secure, if the sovereign betrays a pusillanimous aversion to war.