People still retain the errors of their childhood, their nation, and their age, long after they have accepted the truths needed to refute them.
Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de CondorcetEnjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.
Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de CondorcetA great man, who was convinced that the truths of political and moral science are capable of the same certainty as those that form the system of physical science, even in those branches like astronomy that seem to approximate mathematical certainty. He cherished this belief, for it led to the consoling hope that humanity would inevitably make progress toward a state of happiness and improved character even as it has already done in its knowledge of the truth.
Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de CondorcetUnder the freest constitution ignorant people are still slaves.
Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de CondorcetThe truth belongs to those who seek it, not to those who claim to own it.
Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet[All phenomena] are equally susceptible of being calculated, and all that is necessary, to reduce the whole of nature to laws similar to those which Newton discovered with the aid of the calculus, is to have a sufficient number of observations and a mathematics that is complex enough.
Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet