Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

You have to make it happen.

There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.

Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs.

If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can't deny a kind of respect for the great criminal.

When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man's name live for thousands of years.

Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.

There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge... observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.

The possibility of divorce renders both marriage partners stricter in their observance of the duties they owe to each other. Divorces help to improve morals and to increase the population.

When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music.

Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.

Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.

No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.

The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.

We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.

Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.

The best doctor is the one you run to and can't find.