In order to get as much fame as one’s father one has to much more able than he.
What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.
Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man.
There is less harm to be suffered in being mad among madmen than in being sane all by oneself.
I feel, I think, I judge; therefore, a part of organized matter like me is capable of feeling, thinking, and judging.
Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.
When shall we see poets born? After a time of disasters and great misfortunes, when harrowed nations begin to breathe again. And then, shaken by the terror of such spectacles, imaginations will paint things entirely strange to those who have not witnessed them.
If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.
Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.
My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.
Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.
In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.
Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.
Does not vanity itself cease to be blamable, is it not even ennobled, when it is directed to laudable objects, when it confines itself to prompting us to great and generous actions?
Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.
The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.
The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.
Although a man may wear fine clothing, if he lives peacefully; and is good, self-possessed, has faith and is pure; and if he does not hurt any living being, he is a holy man.
All abstract sciences are nothing but the study of relations between signs.
When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man’s name live for thousands of years.