Do you doubt that the least effects of nature were not used as marks of the wrath of heaven? It was to the interest of pontiffs, priests, and augurs, as much as it is to the interest of lawyers and doctors that there should be lawsuits and sickness. No wonder they took care that the people should not grow slack in their religion.

The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth.

One must be stark mad, to believe that mankind can subsist without magistrates.

In matters of religion, it is very easy to deceive a man and very hard to undeceive him.

No nations are more warlike than those which profess Christianity.

Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.

Philosophy can be compared to some powders that are so corrosive that, after they have eaten away the infected flesh of a wound, they then devour the living flesh, rot the bones, and penetrate to the very marrow. Philosophy at first refutes errors. But if it is not stopped at this point, it goes on to attack truths. And when it is left on its own, it goes so far that it no longer knows where it is and can find no stopping place.