Pleasantry is never good on serious points, because it always regards subjects in that point of view in which it is not the purpose to consider them.
Why, since we are always complaining of our ills, are we constantly employed in redoubling them?
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.
The Jews are of all peoples the grosses, the most ferocious, the most fanatical, and the most absurd.
When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living. Tecumseh Appreciation is a wonderful thing; it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
All men have equal rights to liberty, to their property, and to the protection of the laws.
History is the recital of facts represented as true. Fable, on the other hand, is the recital of facts represented as fiction.
The only way to see the value of a play is to see it acted.
Love has various lodgings; the same word does not always signify the same thing.
Let all the laws be clear, uniform and precise for interpreting laws is almost always to corrupt them.
Opinion is called the queen of the world; it is so, for when reason opposes it, it is condemned to death. It must rise twenty times from its ashes to gradually drive away the usurper.
When one man speaks to another man who doesn’t understand him, and when a man who’s speaking no longer understands, it’s metaphysics.
Fanaticism is a monster that pretends to be the child of religion.
Atheism is the vice of a few intelligent people.
The man who says to me, “Believe as I do, or God will damn you,” will presently say, “Believe as I do, or I shall assassinate you.”
He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.
The question of good and evil remains in irremediable chaos for those who seek to fathom it in reality. It is mere mental sport to the disputants, who are captives that play with their chains.
Man is not born wicked; he becomes so, as he becomes sick.
The tyranny of the many would be when one body takes over the rights of others, and then exercises its power to change the laws in its favor.
Know that the secret of the arts is to correct nature.