Love the truth, but be sympathetic to error.
People easily believe in what they passionately desire.
The multitude of laws in a state means the same thing as the multitude of doctors: a sign of sickness and impotence.
The multitude of facts and writings is growing so rapidly that in the near future it will all have to be collected in anthologies and dictionaries.
My love of country cannot make me close my eyes to the merits of foreigners. On the contrary, the more I love my country, the more I tend to enrich my country with treasures extracted from other soils.
Satire doesn't correct anyone, it only makes fools worse.
Hope for recovery is half the cure.
We are advised: be content with what you have, do not wish for anything better, keep your curiosity in check, calm your restless spirit. These are wonderful teachings, but if we always followed them we would be eating acorns and sleeping under the open sky by now.
It is fitting that pioneers should occupy the first place in the memory of men. But however respectfully we relate to these first geniuses, their descendants often give us much more pleasure.
We honor the geniuses who gave the arts their first outlines, though they are nearer to new minds who perfected these arts.
Our love for ourselves helps our love for others.
My friends, don't be afraid to make fun of superstitions. I know of no more effectual means of destroying superstition than to put it in a ridiculous light. Something that has become gooey cannot be dangerous.
It is undoubtedly in the interest of society to have some form of divinity to punish that which cannot be defeated by human justice.
At no age can a talent be acquired that we lack, but at any age we can correct our mistakes.
There are never great achievements without great difficulties.
In the same way that death is the greatest physical evil, war is the greatest moral evil.
Use, but do not overdo it - this is the rule of wisdom. Neither abstinence nor excess brings happiness.
Permanent arrogance is just the mask of mediocrity.
It's great to be modest, but that doesn't mean you have to be indifferent.
Only what is natural is wonderful.
Something wonderful ceases to be so if it manifests when it is not the time.
It must be admitted that the inventors in the field of mechanical art have proved far more useful to men than the inventors of syllogisms: he who invented the syllogism has an extraordinary advantage over him who invented innate ideas.
Nothing happens by chance, everything in the world is either a test, or a punishment, or a reward, or an omen.
Old age is given to have its share of troubles, but it must be wise enough to bear them with serenity.
Social equality is the most natural and the most illusory idea. On our unhappy planet, people living in society necessarily fall into two categories: the rich, who give orders, and the poor, who fulfill them.
Passions are the winds that swell the sails of the ship. Sometimes they sink her, but without them she could not float. In the world, everything is dangerously necessary.
Only the weak commit crimes: the strong and happy do not need them.
The success of science lies in the labor of time and in the boldness of the mind.
Man from birth tends towards action, as fire tends upwards and stone downwards.
You can subject the honest man to an investigation, but you cannot dishonor him.