“If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can’t deny a kind of respect for the great criminal.”

Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.

There is only one virtue, justice; only one duty, to be happy; only one corollary, not to overvalue life and not to fear death.

Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.

You can be sure that a painter reveals himself in his work as much as and more than a writer does in his.

When we know to read our own hearts, we acquire wisdom of the heartsof others.

There are cats and cats.

It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.

A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced.

The man who first pronounced the barbarous word God ought to have been immediately destroyed.

For me, my thoughts are my prostitutes.

At an early age I sucked up the milk of Homer, Virgil, Horace, Terence, Anacreon, Plato and Euripides, diluted with that of Moses and the prophets.

We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us.

Only the bad man is alone.

Give, but, if possible, spare the poor man the shame of begging.

Philosophy is as far separated from impiety as religion is from fanaticism.

Isn’t it better to have men being ungrateful than to miss a chance to do good?

Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe.

The virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life.

Be afraid of a dignified man when he is hungry and a wicked man when his belly is full.

Expect no reward when you serve the wicked, and be thankful if you escape injury for your pain

Even angels have their wicked schemes and you take that to new extremes.

It’s a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brain to crime it is the worst of all.

In serving the wicked, expect no reward, and be thankful if you escape injury for your pains.

The wicked envy and hate; it is their way of admiring.