 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. |
| Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things. |
| 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! |
| Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy. |
| We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves. |
| Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control. |
| There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father. |
| It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all. |
| My ideas are my whores. |
| There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint. |
| You have to make it happen. |
| There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies. |
| The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children. |
| People praise virtue, but they hate it, they run away from it. It freezes you to death, and in this world you've got to keep your feet warm. |
| His hands would plait the priest's guts, if he had no rope, to strangle kings. |
| In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go. |
| Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine. |
| Good music is very close to primitive language. |
| Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to. |
