History in general is a collection of crimes, follies, and misfortunes among which we have now and then met with a few virtues, and some happy times.

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

And ask each passenger to tell his story, and if there is one of them all who has not cursed his existence many times, and said to himself over and over again that he was the most miserable of men, I give you permission to throw me head-first into the sea.

We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.

How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child's board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.

I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc. It does not behoove us, who were only savages and barbarians when these Indians and Chinese peoples were civilized and learned, to dispute their antiquity.

Man is not born wicked; he becomes so, as he becomes sick.