Change everything except your loves.
The prudent man does himself good; the virtuous one does it to other men.
Men are in general so tricky, so envious, and so cruel that when we find one who is only weak, we are too happy.
You will notice that in all disputes between Christians since the birth of the Church, Rome has always favored the doctrine which most completely subjugated the human mind and annihilated reason.
The road to the heart is the ear.
A witty saying proves nothing, but saying something pointless gets people’s attention.
True power and true politeness are above vanity.
Thought depends absolutely on the stomach, but in spite of that, those who have the best stomachs are not the best thinkers.
Let us leave every man at liberty to seek into him and to lose himself in his ideas.
We are astonished at thought, but sensation is equally wonderful.
How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child’s board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.
True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.
He who is involved in ecstasies and visions, who takes dreams for reality, and his own imagination for prophesy, is a fanatical novice of great hope and promise, and will soon advance to the higher stage and kill men for the love of God.
The Bible. That is what fools have written, what imbeciles commend, what rogues teach and young children are made to learn by heart.
Dogs, monkeys, and parrots are a thousand times less miserable than we are.
If we do not exert the right of eating our neighbor, it is because we have other means of making good cheer.
The malevolence of men revealed itself to his mind in all of its ugliness.
It was decided by the university of Coimbre that the sight of several persons being slowly burned in great ceremony is an infallible secret for preventing earthquakes.
Nothing could be smarter, more splendid, more brilliant, better drawn up than two armies. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, cannons, formed a harmony such as never been heard in hell.
Indolence is sweet, and its consequences bitter.