In Order To Know Virtue, We Must

Hope Is The Most Sensitive Part Of A Poor Wretch's Soul; Whoever Raises It Only To Torment Him Is Behaving Like The Executioners In Hell Who, They Say, Incessantly Renew Old Wounds And Concentrate Their Attention On That Area Of It That Is Already Lacerated.

Miserable Creatures, Thrown For A Moment On The Surface Of This Little Pile Of Mud, Is It Decreed That One Half Of The Flock Should Be The Persecutor Of The Other? Is It For You, Mankind, To Pronounce On What Is Good And What Is Evil?

I Don't Know What The Heart Is, Not I: I Only Use The Word To Denote The Mind's Frailties.

So Long As The Laws Remain Such As They Are Today, Employ Some Discretion: Loud Opinion Forces Us To Do So; But In Privacy And Silence Let Us Compensate Ourselves For That Cruel Chastity We Are Obliged To Display In Public.

We Monsters Are Necessary To Nature Also.