It requires only two things to win credit for a miracle: a mountebank and a number of silly women.

All universal moral principles are idle fancies.

Conspiracy! Intrigue! A rapidly thickening plot! Add some bestiality and a lecherous priest and I'd say you have the beginnings of a beautiful novel.

Happiness lies only in that which excites, and the only thing that excites is crime.

We monsters are necessary to nature also.

All, all is theft, all is unceasing and rigorous competition in nature; the desire to make off with the substance of others is the foremost - the most legitimate - passion nature has bred into us and, without doubt, the most agreeable one.

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.