It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
All men are born with a nose and five fingers, but no one is born with a knowledge of God.
Answer me, you who believe that animals are only machines. Has nature arranged for this animal to have all the machinery of feelings only in order for it not to have any at all?
S'il n'existait pas Dieu il faudrait l'inventer." (If God did not exist he would have to be invented.)
He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child's board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.
There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.
You're a bitter man, said Candide.That's because I've lived, said Martin.
What a pessimist you are! exclaimed Candide.That is because I know what life is, said Martin.
I read only to please myself, and enjoy only what suits my taste.
When men do not have healthy notions of the Divinity, false ideas supplant them, just as in bad times one uses counterfeit money when there is no good money.
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
When we hear news we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
Pleasure is the object duty and the goal of all rational creatures.
Faith is believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
Providence has given us hope and sleep as a compensation for the many cares of life.
All the known world excepting only savage nations is governed by books.
Ask a toad what is beauty? ... a female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head a large flat mouth a yellow belly and a brown back.