To judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude that God created most men simply with a view to crowding hell.

I've already told you: the only way to a woman's heart is along the path of torment. I know none other as sure.

Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain.

Hope is the most sensitive part of a poor wretch's soul; whoever raises it only to torment him is behaving like the executioners in Hell who, they say, incessantly renew old wounds and concentrate their attention on that area of it that is already lacerated.

God strung up his own son like a side of veal. I shudder to think what he would do to me.

It is not my mode of thought that has caused my misfortunes, but the mode of thought of others.

We are no guiltier in following the primative impulses that govern us than is the Nile for her floods or the sea for her waves.