He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

For seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm

Work is often the father of pleasure.

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed from one another. The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it...

What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men, and that as a result he’s certain he’ll go to heaven if he cuts your throat?

Men employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.

Speaking of Newton but also commenting more broadly on education and the Enlightenment: “I have seen a professor of mathematics only because he was great in his vocation, buried like a king who had done...

Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them

Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.

He who doesn’t have the spirit of his time, has all its misery.

A witty saying proves nothing.

Judge a person by their questions, rather than their answers.

Providence has given us hope and sleep as a compensation for the many cares of life

Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him.

By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.

Men argue, nature acts.

My life is a struggle.

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.

Love truth, but pardon error.

Men argue. Nature acts.

Let us cultivate our garden.

I have seen so many extraordinary things that nothing seems extraordinary to me

The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes the greater is their power to harm us

Prejudice is an opinion without judgment

The Pope is an idol whose hands are tied and whose feet are kissed.

Self-love is the instrument of our preservation.

We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongues, at our peril, risk and hazard.

I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything

History should be written as philosophy.

Better is the enemy of good.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.

Men use thought only to justify their wrong-doings, and words only to conceal their thoughts.

If you want good laws, burn those you have and make new ones.

But there must be some pleasure in condemning everything–in perceiving faults where others think they see beauties.”You mean there is pleasure in having no pleasure.

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.

Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel.

The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

If there were only one religion in England there would be danger of despotism, if there were two, they would cut each other’s throats, but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness.

A man loved by a beautiful woman will always get out of trouble

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy: the mad daughter of a wise mother

Someone has said that the first soothsayer, the first prophet, was the first rascal who encountered a fool

I know of no great man except those who have rendered great services to the human race.