Nov 21, 1694 - May 30, 1778
French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and free trade
Share this author:
If we would destroy the Christian religion, we must first of all destroy man's belief in the Bible.
England has forty-two religions and only two sauces.
The Bible. That is what fools have written, what imbeciles commend, what rogues teach and young children are made to learn by heart.
He who is involved in ecstasies and visions, who takes dreams for reality, and his own imagination for prophesy, is a fanatical novice of great hope and promise, and will soon advance to the higher stage and kill men for the love of God.
You will notice that in all disputes between Christians since the birth of the Church, Rome has always favored the doctrine which most completely subjugated the human mind and annihilated reason.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him; let us worship God through Jesus if we must - if ignorance has so far prevailed that this name can still be spoken in all seriousness without being taken as a synonym for rapine and carnage. Every sensible man, every honourable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror...
Men are in general so tricky, so envious, and so cruel that when we find one who is only weak, we are too happy.
The prudent man does himself good; the virtuous one does it to other men.
People must have renounced, it seems to me, all natural intelligence to dare to advance that animals are but animated machines.... It appears to me, besides, that such people can never have observed with attention the character of animals, not to have distinguished among them the different voices of need, of suffering, of joy, of pain, of love, of anger, and of all their affections. It would be very strange that they should express so well what they could not feel.
Self love is the instrument of our preservation.
Change everything except your loves.
The fate of a nation has often depended upon the good or bad digestion of a prime minister.
The road to the heart is the ear
Better is the enemy of good.
Originality is nothing but judicious plagiarism.
Learn to cultivate your own garden.
True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.
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.
We are astonished at thought, but sensation is equally wonderful.
Let us leave every man at liberty to seek into him and to lose himself in his ideas.
Thought depends absolutely on the stomach, but in spite of that, those who have the best stomachs are not the best thinkers.
True power and true politeness are above vanity.
A witty saying proves nothing, but saying something pointless gets people's attention.
The necessity of saying something, the embarrassment produced by the consciousness of having nothing to say, and the desire to exhibit ability, are three things sufficient to render even a great man ridiculous.
When one man speaks to another man who doesn't understand him, and when a man who's speaking no longer understands, it's metaphysics.
We offer up prayers to god only because we have made him after our own image. We treat him like a pasha, or a sultan, who is capable of being exasperated and appeased.
Why, since we are always complaining of our ills, are we constantly employed in redoubling them?
Pleasantry is never good on serious points, because it always regards subjects in that point of view in which it is not the purpose to consider them.
Every sensible man, every honest man, must hold the Christian sect in horror. But what shall we substitute in its place? you say. What? A ferocious animal has sucked the blood of my relatives. I tell you to rid yourselves of this beast, and you ask me what you shall put in its place ?
The first clergyman was the first rascal who met the first fool.
