Let us therefore reject all superstition in order to become more human; but in speaking against fanaticism, let us not imitate the fanatics: they are sick men in delirium who want to chastise their doctors. Let us assuage their ills, and never embitter them, and let us pour drop by drop into their souls the divine balm of toleration, which they would reject with horror if it were offered to them all at once.

What would constitute useful history? That which should teach us our duties and our rights, without appearing to teach them.

If you are attacked as regards your style, never reply; it is for your work alone to make answer.

An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

They are mad men (Jews), but you should not burn them for that.

Every abuse ought to be reformed, unless the reform is more dangerous than the abuse itself.

The system of Descartes... seemed to give a plausible reason for all those phenomena; and this reason seemed more just, as it is simple and intelligible to all capacities. But in philosophy, a student ought to doubt of the things he fancies he understands too easily, as much as of those he does not understand.