He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.

Life is thickly sown with thorns. I know no other remedy than to pass rapidly over them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes the greater is their power to harm us.

Whenever an important event, a revolution, or a calamity turns to the profit of the church, such is always signalised as the Finger of God.

The multiplicity of facts and writings is become so great that every thing must soon be reduced to extracts and dictionaries.

History is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play upon the dead.

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.

‎Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.