The superfluous, a very necessary thing.

Sensual pleasure passes and vanishes, but the friendship between us, the mutual confidence, the delight of the heart, the enchantment of the soul, these things do not perish and can never be destroyed.

The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.

We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

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.

History contains little beyond a list of people who have accommodate themselves with other people's property.