It is not human nature we should accuse but the despicable conventions that pervert it.

Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.

All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings.

Those who fear the facts will forever try to discredit the fact-finders.

Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs.

Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

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

In general, children, like men, and men, like children, prefer entertainment to education.

Although a man may wear fine clothing, if he lives peacefully; and is good, self-possessed, has faith and is pure; and if he does not hurt any living being, he is a holy man.

We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages.

The Revolutionary Guard was created to help defend the revolution, but it soon was diverted from its initial path.

The thing I think about is that once you've done it, you then start to think about what you're going to do next. It's much easier to follow something that's not been as successful as this.

[T]he obverse of facile emotion in the 14th century was a general insensitivity to the spectacle of pain and death.

I used to think God wouldn’t talk to me, but now I know I’m just selective with what I choose to hear.

I have never met a grateful performer in the movies.

It's an astonishing skill that people can read, and read well. Very few people can read well. For instance, I have to be very careful with irony, saying something while meaning the exact opposite.

It's the viewer that makes the work.

Refusing further service as a Roman soldier: I am a soldier of Christ: combat is not permitted to me.

Only the rich can achieve enlightenment because the poor are too busy looking for fridge freezers.