People here argue about religion interminably, but it appears that they are competing at the same time to see who can be the least devout. - Montesquieu

[An author is] a fool who, not content with boring everyone around him during his lifetime, insists on boring generations yet to come.

With truths of a certain kind, it is not enough to make them appear convincing: one must also make them felt. Of such kind are moral truths.

Mon cher Usbek, quand je vois des hommes qui rampent sur un atome, c'est-à-dire la terre, qui n'est qu'un point de l'univers, se proposer directement pour modèles de la Providence, je ne sais comment accorder tant d'extravagance avec tant de petitesse.