To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.
The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important aims of philosophy.
No opinion is worth burning your neighbor for.
What is history? The lie that everyone agrees on...
May God defend me from my friends: I can defend myself from my enemies.
Beware of the words “internal security,” for they are the eternal cry of the oppressor.
She blushed and so did he. She greeted him in a faltering voice, and he spoke to her without knowing what he was saying.
You write your name in the snow Yet say nothing.
I hold firmly to my original views. After all I am a philosopher.
To caress the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten away our heart.
An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
Let us confess it: evil strides the world.
I swear that, not being able to be yours, I will belong to no one.
Secret griefs are more cruel than public calamities.
When truth is evident, it is impossible for parties and factions to rise. There never has been a dispute as to whether there is daylight at noon.
A physician is an unfortunate gentleman who is every day required to perform a miracle; namely to reconcile health with intemperance.
The wicked can have only accomplices, the voluptuous have companions in debauchery, self-seekers have associates, the politic assemble the factions, the typical idler has connections, princes have courtiers. Only the virtuous have friends.
History contains little beyond a list of people who have accommodate themselves with other people’s property.
The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom.
To pray to God is to flatter oneself that with words one can alter nature.