To study men, we must look close by; to study man, we must learn to look afar; if we are to discover essential characteristics, we must first observe differences.

The man is best served who has no occasion to put the hands of others at the end of his own arms.

No true believer could be intolerant or a persecutor. If I were a magistrate and the law carried the death penalty against atheists, I would begin by sending to the stake whoever denounced another.

Whoever blushes is already guilty; true innocence is ashamed of nothing.

Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.

Posterity is always just.

Generally we obtain very surely and very speedily what we are not too anxious to obtain.