The degradation which characterizes the state into which you plunge him by punishing him pleases, amuses, and delights him. Deep down he enjoys having gone so far as to deserve being treated in such a way.

At all times, in every century, every age, there has been such a connection between despotism and religion that it is infinitely apparent and demonstrated a thousand times over, that in destroying one, the other must be undermined, for the simple reason that the first will always put the law into the service of the second.

Prejudice is the sole author of infamies: how many acts are so qualified by an opinion forged out of naught but prejudice!

So long as the laws remain such as they are today, employ some discretion: loud opinion forces us to do so; but in privacy and silence let us compensate ourselves for that cruel chastity we are obliged to display in public.

All universal moral principles are idle fancies.

'Til the infallibility of human judgements shall have been proved to me, I shall demand the abolition of the penalty of death.

They declaim against the passions without bothering to think that it is from their flame philosophy lights its torch.