If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.

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

Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.

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.

Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.

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

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

The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.

The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity.

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.

There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant.

The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.

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.

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

Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.

Nature has no principles. She makes no distinction between good and evil.

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

Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream.

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!