Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.

Everything can be borne except contempt.

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.

We’re neither pure, nor wise, nor good; we do the best we know.

Everything happens through immutable laws, ...everything is necessary... There are, some persons say, some events which are necessary and others which are not. It would be very comic that one part of the world was arranged, and the other were not; that one part of what happens had to happen and that another part of what happens did not have to happen. If one looks closely at it, one sees that the doctrine contrary to that of destiny is absurd; but there are many people destined to reason badly; others not to reason at all others to persecute those who reason.

I envy animals for two things - their ignorance of evil to come, and their ignorance of what is said about them.

The supposed right of intolerance is absurd and barbaric. It is the right of the tiger; nay, it is far worse, for tigers do but tear in order to have food, while we rend each other for paragraphs.