Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

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

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.

All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.

Nature has always had more force than education.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

Fear follows crime and is its punishment.

Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

The best is the enemy of the good.

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.

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking.

Better is the enemy of good.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

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.

All men are born with a nose and five fingers, but no one is born with a knowledge of God.

He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

Society therefore is as ancient as the world.

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.

Common sense is not so common.

He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.

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

History should be written as philosophy.

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

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

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

We are rarely proud when we are alone.

Tears are the silent language of grief.

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

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.

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.

It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

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

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

My life is a struggle.

To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.

Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

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

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.

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

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.

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.

Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.