The Bible. That is what fools have written, what imbeciles commend, what rogues teach and young children are made to learn by heart.

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

Custom, law bent my first years to the religion of the happy Muslims. I see it too clearly: the care taken of our childhood forms our feelings, our habits, our belief. By the Ganges I would have been a slave of the false gods, a Christian in Paris, a Muslim here.

Common sense is both more rare and more desirable in leaders than mere intelligence.

To a toad what is beauty? A female with two lovely pop-eyes, a wide mouth, yellow belly, and green spotted back.

There are barbarians who seize this dog, who so prodigiously surpasses man in friendship, and nail him down to a table, and dissect him alive to show you the mezaraic veins... Answer me, Machinist, has Nature really arranged all the springs of feeling in this animal to the end that he might not feel? Has he nerves that he may be incapable of suffering?

A witty saying proves nothing, but saying something pointless gets people's attention.