"Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that ..." — Denis Diderot

Bad company is as instructive as licentiousness. One makes up for the loss of one's innocence with the loss of one's prejudices.

One declaims endlessly against the passions; one imputes all of man's suffering to them. One forgets that they are also the source of all his pleasures.

There is no good father who would want to resemble our Heavenly Father.

We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.