Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.

Some suggestions for you :

Good music is very close to primitive language.

Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.

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!

What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step toward truth.

The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children.

Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.

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

His hands would plait the priest's guts, if he had no rope, to strangle kings.

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.

Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.

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.

Gaiety is a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.

Sentences are like sharp nails, which force truth upon our memories.

Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.