If all else fails, the character of a man can be recognized by nothing so surely as by a jest which he takes badly.

The highest level than can be reached by a mediocre but experienced mind is a talent for uncovering the weaknesses of those greater than itself.

I ceased in the year 1764 to believe that one can convince one’s opponents with arguments printed in books. It is not to do that, therefore, that I have taken up my pen, but merely so as to annoy them, and to bestow strength and courage on those on our own side, and to make it known to the others that they have not convinced us.

It is a great shame; most of our words are misused tools / which often still smell of the mud in which previous owners / desecrated them.

Probably no invention came more easily to man than heaven.

To read means to borrow; to create out of one s readings is paying off one's debts.

The "second sight" possessed by the Highlanders in Scotland is actually a foreknowledge of future events. I believe they possess this gift because they don't wear trousers.