It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it.
From Denis Diderot
Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things.
Genius is present in every age, but the men carrying it within them remain benumbed unless extraordinary events occur to heat up and melt the mass so that it flows forth.
Bad company is as instructive as licentiousness. One makes up for the loss of one's innocence with the loss of one's prejudices.
Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.
The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled.
Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.
The blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me.
Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.
Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.
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