Because a fact seems strange to you, you conclude that it is not one. ... All science, however, commences by being strange. Science is successive. It goes from one wonder to another. It mounts by a ladder. The science of to-day would seem extravagant to the science of a former time. Ptolemy would believe Newton mad.

As for the bishop, the sight of the guillotine was a great shock to him, from which he recovered only slowly.

An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.

Men become accustomed to poison by degrees.

Who among us has not sought peace in a song?

Men hate those to whom they have to lie.

There is no rapture in the love which is prompted by esteem; such affection is lasting, not passionate.