The blood of Jesus Christ can cover a multitude of sins, it seems to me.
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When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music.
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The first promise exchanged by two beings of flesh was at the foot of a rock that was crumbling into dust; they took as witness for their cons...
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The following general definition of an animal: a system of different organic molecules that have combined with one another, under the impulsion of a sensation similar to an obtuse and muffled sense of touch given to them by the creator of matter as a whole, until each one of them has found the most suitable position for its shape and comfort.
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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.
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Distance is a great promoter of admiration!
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Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.
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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.
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Genius is present in every age, but the men carrying it within them remain benumbed unless extraordinary events occur to heat up and melt the mass so that it flows forth.
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Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.
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In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.
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Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.
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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.
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A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence scepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone.
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Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
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The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law.
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There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
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Impenetrable in their dissimulation, cruel in their vengeance, tenacious in their purposes, unscrupulous as to their methods, animated by profound and hidden hatred for the tyranny of man -- it is as though there exists among them an ever-present conspiracy toward domination, a sort of alliance like that subsisting among the priests of every country.
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Fanaticism is just one step away from barbarism.
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All children are essentially criminal.
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We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip little by little at a truth we find bitter.
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Virtue is praised but hated. People run away from it, for it is ice-cold and in this world you must keep your feet warm.
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It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.
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No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same species ha...
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Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.
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I can be expected to look for truth but not to find it.
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What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step toward truth.
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Only a very bad theologian would confuse the certainty that follows revelation with the truths that are revealed. They are entirely different things.
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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.
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Bad company is as instructive as licentiousness. One makes up for the loss of one's innocence with the loss of one's prejudices.
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