The only reward to be expected from literature is contempt if one fails and hatred if one succeeds.

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.

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.

Man is free at the instant he wants to be.

You have no control over the hand that life deals you, but how you play that hand is entirely up to you.

The worthy administrators of justice are like a cat set to take care of a cheese, lest it should be gnawed by the mice. One bite of the cat does more damage to the cheese than twenty mice can do.

Our priests are not what a silly populace supposes; all their learning consists in our credulity.