“Religion began when the first scoundrel met the first fool.”

“Do you believe,' said Candide, 'that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?'Do you believe,' said Martin, 'that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?”

“When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.”

“Illusion is the first of all pleasures”

“The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.”

“Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool.”

“What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.”