Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.
If there are one hundred thousand damned souls for one saved soul, the devil has always the advantage without having given up his son to death.
Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.
Distance is a great promoter of admiration.
There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.
Instinct guides the animal better than the man. In the animal it is pure, in man it is led astray by his reason and intelligence.
A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced.
There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.
The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion.
Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs.
Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.
My ideas are my whores.
There is no true sovereign except the nation; there can be no true legislator except the people.
Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to guide me. A stranger appears and says to me: 'My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.' This stranger is a theologian.
There is less harm to be suffered in being mad among madmen than in being sane all by oneself.
The man who first pronounced the barbarous word God ought to have been immediately destroyed.
When we know to read our own hearts, we acquire wisdom of the heartsof others.
No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he is in enjoyment of his reason.
I discuss with myself questions of politics, love, taste, or philosophy. I let my mind rove wantonly, give it free rein to followany idea, wise or mad that may present itself. My ideas are my harlots.
The bad gives rise to the good, the good inspires the better, the better produces the excellent, the excellent is followed by the bizarre
Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.
Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.
All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings... We must run roughshod over all these ancient puerilities, overturn the barriers that reason never erected, give back to the arts and sciences the liberty that is so precious to them.
Does anyone really know where they're going to?
The best mannered people make the most absurd lovers.
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