The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.

Let them call me rebel, and welcome, I feel no concern from it.

Lay then the axe to the root, and teach governments humanity. It is their sanguinary punishments which corrupt mankind.

Take away from Genesis the belief that Moses was the author, on which only the strange believe that it is the word of God has stood, and there remains nothing of Genesis but an anonymous book of stories, fables, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or of downright lies.

Some people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it.

To live with our enemies as if they may some time become our friends, and to live with our friends as if they may some time become our enemies, is not a moral but a political maxim

The cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.