“In any country where talent and virtue produce no advancement, money will be the national god. Its inhabitants will either have to possess money or make others believe that they do. Wealth will be the highest virtue, poverty the greatest vice. Those who have money will display it in every imaginable way. If their ostentation does not exceed their fortune, all will be well. But if their ostentation does exceed their fortune they will ruin themselves. In such a country, the greatest fortunes will vanish in the twinkling of an eye. Those who don't have money will ruin themselves with vain efforts to conceal their poverty. That is one kind of affluence: the outward sign of wealth for a small number, the mask of poverty for the majority, and a source of corruption for all.”
“Distance is a great promoter of admiration!”
“The best doctor is the one you run to and can't find.”
“Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.”
“Sentences are like sharp nails, which force truth upon our memories.”
“Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.”
“Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.”
“I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don't remember ever having seen one weep.”
“The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.”
“We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us.”
“Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.”
“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.”
“No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he is in enjoyment of his reason.”
“To attempt the destruction of our passions is the height of folly. What a noble aim is that of the zealot who tortures himself like a madman in order to desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing, and who, if he succeeded, would end up a complete monster!”