We are all full of weakness and errors let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
The secret of being tiresome is in telling everything.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is.
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 do...
The heart has its own reasons that reason can't understand.
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
Better is the enemy of the good.
Perfect is the enemy of good.
All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
History is just the portrayal of crimes and misfortunes.
It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.
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?
Religion was instituted to make us happy in this life and in the other. What must we do to be happy in the life to come? Be just.
Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes.
The punishment of criminals should be of use when a man is hanged he is good for nothing.
Fear could never make a virtue.
I never was ruined but twice - once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one.