In Order To Get As Much Fame

Only Passions, Great Passions, Can Elevate The Soul To Great Things.

Philosophy Is As Far Separated From Impiety As Religion Is From Fanaticism.

In Order To Shake A Hypothesis, It Is Sometimes Not Necessary To Do Anything More Than Push It As Far As It Will Go.

It Seems To Me That If One Had Kept Silence Up To Now Regarding Religion, People Would Still Be Submerged In The Most Grotesque And Dangerous Superstition ... Regarding Government, We Would Still Be Groaning Under The Bonds Of Feudal Government ... Regarding Morals, We Would Still Be Having To Learn What Is Virtue And What Is Vice. To Forbid All These Discussions, The Only Ones Worthy Of Occupying A Good Mind, Is To Perpetuate The Reign Of Ignorance And Barbarism.

How Old The World Is! I Walk Between Two Eternities.... What Is My Fleeting Existence In Comparison With That Decaying Rock, That Valley Digging Its Channel Ever Deeper, That Forest That Is Tottering And Those Great Masses Above My Head About To Fall? I See The Marble Of Tombs Crumbling Into Dust; And Yet I Don't Want To Die!