Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.

It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.

An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

Life is bristling with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one's garden.

All the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

What! Have you no monks to teach, to dispute, to govern, to intrigue and to burn people who do not agree with them?