You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

Thought depends absolutely on the stomach, but in spite of that, those who have the best stomachs are not the best thinkers.

If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor.

God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart to the finest verses chanted by the wicked.

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

Villains are undone by what is worst in them, heroes by what is best.

If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?