Anything we do to fight misery and ignorance and poverty, no matter how imperfect it may be, is still better than doing nothing at all.

The Encyclopedia - the advance artillery of reason, the armada of philosophy, the siege engine of the enlightenment.

One is bound to one's wife, but has a bond to one's mistress.

Even when we strive for perfection , life is nothing more than an attempt to achieve it through a series of greater or smaller imperfections.

Politics is the only field in which the character of a person does not stand in the way of his career.

Politics is a matter of leading other people. Admittedly not where they want to go, but where they ought to go.

Books are never harmless...they either strengthen us or they weaken us in our faith. Some of them do this even as they entertain us, others as they teach us. In an invisible way their teaching penetrates into our hearts and souls, to continue its work inside, and we inhale the spirit of these books as healing or poisonous vapors. They can bring the greatest benefits and the greatest ruin, for from their ideas that they spread come the deeds of the future.