Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
No, nothing has the power to part me from you; our love is based upon virtue, and will last as long as our lives.
It is the characteristic of the most stringent censorships that they give credibility to the opinions they attack.
We know that all the arts are brothers, that each of them illuminates another, and that a universal light results.
Men, generally going with the stream, seldom judge for themselves, and purity of taste is almost as rare as talent.
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
Liberty, then, about which so many volumes have been written is, when accurately defined, only the power of acting.
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is Metaphysics.
What! Have you no monks to teach, to dispute, to govern, to intrigue and to burn people who do not agree with them?
The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important aims of philosophy.
Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.
The famous physician Dumoulin said when dying, 'I leave two great physicians behind me, simple food and pure water.'
The mirror is a worthless invention. The only way to truly see yourself is in the reflection of someone else's eyes.
When his highness sends a ship to Egypt, does he trouble his head whether the mice on board are at their ease or not?
I am the best-natured creature in the world, and yet I have already killed three, and of these three two were priests.
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
For can anything be sillier than to insist on carrying a burden one would continually much rather throw to the ground?
Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.
But in this country it is necessary, now and then, to put one admiral to death in order to inspire the others to fight.
How inexpressible is the meanness of being a hypocrite! how horrible is it to be a mischievous and malignant hypocrite.
The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.
The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third.
It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.
I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.
A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live.
She blushed and so did he. She greeted him in a faltering voice, and he spoke to her without knowing what he was saying.
Fanaticism, to which men are so much inclined, has always served not only to render them more brutalized but more wicked.
In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.
It has taken seas of blood to drown the idol of despotism, but the English do not think they bought their laws too dearly.
War is the greatest of all crimes; and yet there is no aggressor who does not color his crime with the pretext of justice.
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
Individual misfortunes give rise to the general good; so that the more individual misfortunes exist, the more all is fine.
Thought depends absolutely on the stomach, but in spite of that, those who have the best stomachs are not the best thinkers.
What would constitute useful history? That which should teach us our duties and our rights, without appearing to teach them.
Martin in particular concluded that man was born to live either in the convulsions of misery, or in the lethargy of boredom.
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
There are two things for which animals are to be envied: they know nothing of future evils, or of what people say about them.
The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
The multiplicity of facts and writings is become so great that every thing must soon be reduced to extracts and dictionaries.
When we cannot use the compass of mathematics or the torch of experience...it is certain we cannot take a single step forward.
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.
History is the recital of facts represented as true. Fable, on the other hand, is the recital of facts represented as fiction.
Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes.
Doctors put drugs of which they know little into bodies of which they know less for diseases of which they know nothing at all.
A fool is a person who guesses and gets it wrong, a clever man is one who guesses, regardless of time period, and gets it right.
The most genuine and efficacious charity is that which greases the paws of the priests; such charity covers a multitude of sins.
Religion was instituted to make us happy in this life and in the other. What must we do to be happy in the life to come? Be just.
Inspiration: A peculiar effect of divine flatulence emitted by the Holy Spirit which hisses into the ears of a few chosen of God.
This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.
History is only the pattern of silken slippers descending the stairs to the thunder of hobnailed boots climbing upward from below.