He who would not wish his country to be bigger or smaller, richer or poorer, would be a citizen of the universe.
Fanaticism is, in reference to superstition, what delirium is to fever, or rage to anger.
Yesterday I was robbed and beaten by an officer; yet to-day I must put on good humour to please a friar.
I have been a hundred times upon the point of killing myself, but still I was fond of life. This ridiculous weakness is, perhaps, one of the dangerous principles implanted in our nature. For what can be more absurd than to persist in carrying a burden of which we wish to be eased? to detest, and yet to strive to preserve our existence? In a word, to caress the serpent that devours us, and hug him close to our bosoms till he has gnawed into our hearts?
They pretend that this man has never felt any uneasiness.
Mankind were born to assist one another.
Miss,” replied the old woman, “you do not know my birth; and were I to show you my backside, you would not talk in that manner, but would suspend your judgment.
Those who find the idea of another life so flattering and so sweet, have they then forgotten that this other life, according to them, is to be accompanied by torments for the majority of mortals?
If there exists a God who could be offended or blasphemed, there would not be upon earth any greater blasphemers than those who dare to say that this God is perverse enough to take pleasure in dooming His feeble creatures to useless torments for all eternity.
If we cannot succeed in this world we may in another. It is a great pleasure to see new objects and perform new exploits.
Is not the idea of total annihilation infinitely preferable to the idea of an eternal existence accompanied with suffering and gnashing of teeth?
Music, to-day, is only the art of executing difficult things, and that which is only difficult cannot please long.
I prefer to be annihilated at once rather than to burn forever;.
The truth of the matter is as follows: I was walking toward the little wood, where I afterward met the venerable eunuch, and the most illustrious chief huntsman. I observed on the sand the traces of an animal, and could easily perceive them to be those of a little dog. The.
There is more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer.
Whether thou art the child’s favorite or not, thou shalt have his mother.
It would be much easier to conquer the whole world by force of arms than to subjugate all the human minds in a single town.
To-day, especially, when new faiths are changing the structure of the world, faiths which are still plastic enough to be deformed by every disciple, each disciple for himself, and which have not yet received the final deformation known as universal acceptance, to-day.
I am still of my first opinion,” answered Pangloss, “for I am a philosopher and I cannot retract, especially as Leibnitz could never be wrong; and besides, the pre-established harmony is the finest thing in the world, and so is his plenum and materia subtilis.
Morality needs a firmer basis than the example of a God whose conduct varies, and whom we can not call good but by obstinately closing the eyes to the evil which He causes, or permits to be done in this world.