Nothing we can do outrages Nature directly. Our acts of destruction give her new vigour and feed her energy, but none of our wreckings can weaken her power.

There is a kind of pleasure which comes from sacrilege or the profanation of the objects offered us for worship.

The reasoning man who scorns the prejudices of simpletons necessarily becomes the enemy of simpletons; he must expect as much, and laugh at the inevitable.

What you call disorder is nothing else than one of the laws of the order you comprehend not and which you have erroneously named disorder because its effects, though good for Nature, run counter to your convenience or jar your opinions.

No lover, if he be of good faith, and sincere, will deny he would prefer to see his mistress dead than unfaithful.

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.

Now I beg of you to tell me whether I must love a human being simply because he exists or resembles me and whether for those reasons alone I must suddenly prefer him to myself?