Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.
It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.
The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law.
Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs.
Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.
Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.
The possibility of divorce renders both marriage partners stricter in their observance of the duties they owe to each other. Divorces help to improve morals and to increase the population.
Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.
One declaims endlessly against the passions; one imputes all of man's suffering to them. One forgets that they are also the source of all his pleasures.
We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves.
Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.
We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.
There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.
Good music is very close to primitive language.
When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music.
There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies.
In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.
There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
