It is never by metaphysics that you will succeed in delivering men from error; you must prove the truth by facts.
If fortune brings to pass one of a hundred events predicted by roguery, all the others are forgotten, and that one remains as a pledge of the favor of God, and as the proof of a prodigy.
Every one is born with a nose and five fingers, and no one is born with a knowledge of God. This may be deplorable or not, but it is certainly the human condition.
If God made us in his own image, we have well returned him the compliment.
Nature preserves the species, and cares but very little for individuals.
To fast, to pray, a priest’s virtue; to succor, virtue of a citizen.
When Bellerophon, mounted on Pegasus, wished to ascend to heaven to discover the secrets of the gods, a fly stung Pegasus, and he was thrown.
“Why do you receive so many fools in your order?” was said to a Jesuit. “We need saints.”
Rousseau [J. B.] having shown his antagonist [Voltaire] his Ode to Posterity, the latter said: “My friend, here is a letter which will never reach its address.”
If a tulip could speak, and said, “My vegetation and I are two distinct beings, evidently joined together,” would you not mock at the tulip?