Man is so muddled, so dependent on the things immediately before his eyes, that every day even the most submissive believer can be seen to risk the torments of the afterlife for the smallest pleasure.

I don't know what a scoundrel is like, but I know what a respectable man is like, and it's enough to make one's flesh creep.

In the works of man, everything is as poor as its author; vision is confined, means are limited, scope is restricted, movements are labored, and results are humdrum.

Nothing is necessary except God, and nothing is less necessary than pain.

All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice.

Every individual or national degeneration is immediately revealed by a directly proportional degradation in language.

The great fault in women is to desire to be like men.