I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.

Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.

Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one.

If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.

We live too much in books and not enough in nature, and we are very much like the simpleton of a Pliny the Younger, who went on studying a Greek author while before his eyes...

Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.

I sought out the laws which govern nature, solid or ethereal, and after much pondering I perceived that the Universe had not been formed as its pretended Creator would have us believe; I knew that...

Time deals gently only with those who take it gently.

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will. Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.

Silence is the wit of fools.

For the majority of people, though they do not know what to do with this life, long for another that shall have no end.

I would define a book as a work of magic whence escape, all kinds of images to trouble the souls and change the hearts of men

Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have left me.

The wonder is, not that the field of stars is so vast, but that man has measured it

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance?

We have drugs to make women speak, but none to keep them silent

Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream.

We have never heard the devil’s side of the story, God wrote all the book.

It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.

Nature, in her indifference, makes no distinction between good and evil.

The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.

It is good to collect things, but it is better to go on walks.

It is better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.

It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be.

To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.

Je tiens à mon imperfection comme à ma raison d’être.

Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.

It is well for the heart to be naive and for the mind not to be

Epicure a dit: ou Dieu veut empêcher le mal et ne le peut, ou il le peut et ne le veut, ou il ne le peut ni ne le veut, ou il le veut et...

The whole art of teaching is the only art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards; and curiosity itself can be vivid and wholesome only in proportion...

The finest words in the world are only vain sounds, if you cannot comprehend them

Ignorance and error are necessary to life, like bread and water.

Suffering — how divine it is, how misunderstood! We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we...

If it were absolutely necessary to choose, I would rather be guilty of an immoral act than of a cruel one

The poor have to labour in the face of the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to...

It is only the poor who pay cash, and that not from virtue, but because they are refused credit.

We do not know what to do with this short life, yet we want another which will be eternal.

A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.

A woman without breasts is like a bed without pillows

The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever.

It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.

Nothing spoils a confession like repentance

One thing above all gives charm to men’s thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me.

Nature teaches us to devour each other and gives us the example of all the crimes and all the vices which the social state corrects or conceals. We should love virtue; but it is well...

Suffering! We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.

To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.

The pseudonym for God when He did not want to sign.

The history books which contain no lies are extremely tedious

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread