For seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm.

So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one's fatherland is to wish evil to one's neighbors. The citizen of the universe would be the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer.

A little evil is often necessary for obtaining a great good.

An admiral should be put to death now and then to encourage the others.

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.

The Jews are of all peoples the grosses, the most ferocious, the most fanatical, and the most absurd.

When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.