It is the first law of friendship that it has to be cultivated. The second is to be indulgent when the first law is neglected.

It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.

If the bookseller happens to desire a privilege for his merchandise, whether he is selling Rabelais or the Fathers of the Church, the magistrate grants the privilege without answering for the contents of the book. - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire

Let us therefore reject all superstition in order to become more human; but in speaking against fanaticism, let us not imitate the fanatics: they are sick men in delirium who want to chastise their doctors. Let us assuage their ills, and never embitter them, and let us pour drop by drop into their souls the divine balm of toleration, which they would reject with horror if it were offered to them all at once.

A woman can keep one secret the secret of her age.

Now is not the time for making new enemies.

I keep to old books, for they teach me something; from the new I learn very little