"Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes."

"Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same."

"Reading nurtures the soul, and an enlightened friend brings it solace."

"Luck is a word devoid of sense nothing can exist without a cause."

"We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved."

"The secret of boring people lies in telling them everything."

"Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination."

"Men argue. Nature acts."

"She blushed and so did he. She greeted him in a faltering voice, and he spoke to her without knowing what he was saying."

"Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read."

"All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God."

"You (Pindar) who possessed the talent of speaking much without saying anything."

"The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out."

"Fear could never make a virtue."

"All men are by nature free; you have therefore an undoubted liberty to depart whenever you please, but will have many and great difficulties to encounter in passing the frontiers."

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."

"Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one's country is to wish harm to one's neighbors."

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

"If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated."

"Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth."

"Perfect is the enemy of good."

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

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

"Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause."

"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity."

"We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest."

"When man was put into the garden of eden, he was put there with the idea that he should work the land; and this proves that man was not born to be idle."

"What we find in books is like the fire in our hearths. We fetch it from our neighbors, we kindle it at home, we communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all."

"The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say; but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work."

"An opportunity fordoing an injury happens a hundred times a day, hut for doing good not once a year," says Zoroaster."

"The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination."

"It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love."

"One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose."

"The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason."

"Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts florish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any expirienced in a town when it is under siege."

"Common sense is not so common."

"Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry always gets the best of the argument."

"A witty saying proves nothing."

"What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous."

"He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first."

"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world."

"I tried to believe in God, but I confess to you that God meant nothing in my life, and that in my secret heart I too felt a void where my childhood faith had been. But probably this feeling belongs only to individuals in transition. The grandchildren of these pessimists will frolic in the freedom of their lives, and have more happiness than poor Christians darkened with fear of Hell."

"And to every man has been assigned a good and an evil angel; one assisting him and the other annoying him, from his cradle to his coffin."

"We never live but we are always in the expectation of living."

"I have only ever made one prayer to God, a very short one: O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it."

"Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day."

"It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow."

"I've decided to be happy because it's good for my health."

"Perhaps, if I use my reason in good faith, I may suceed in discovering some ray of probability to lighten me in the dark night of nature. And if this faint dawn which I seek does not come to me, I shall be consoled to think that my ignorance is invincible; that knowledge which is forbidden me is assuredly useless to me; and that the great Being will not punish me for having sought a knowledge of him and failed to obtain it."

"All the known world excepting only savage nations is governed by books."