Dare to think for yourself.

Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.

I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.

Doctors put drugs of which they know little into bodies of which they know less for diseases of which they know nothing at all.

We offer up prayers to god only because we have made him after our own image. We treat him like a pasha, or a sultan, who is capable of being exasperated and appeased.