I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc. It does not behoove us, who were only savages and barbarians when these Indians and Chinese peoples were civilized and learned, to dispute their antiquity.

The more he became truly wise, the more he distrusted everything he knew.

I am the best-natured creature in the world, and yet I have already killed three, and of these three two were priests.

What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.

History is the study of the world's crime

For seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm.

The abuse of grace is affectation, as the abuse of the sublime is absurdity; all perfection is nearly a fault.