“In order to know virtue, we must first acquaint ourselves with vice.”

“True happiness lies in the senses, and virtue gratifies none of them.”

“Let us give ourselves indiscriminately to everything our passions suggest, and we will always be happy…Conscience is not the voice of Nature but only the voice of prejudice.”

“If God permits virtue to be persecuted on earth, it is not for us to question his intentions. It may be that his rewards are held over for another life, for is it not true as written in Holy Scripture that the Lord chastenenth only the righteous! And after all, is not virtue it's own reward?”

“So long as the laws remain such as they are today, employ some discretion: loud opinion forces us to do so; but in privacy and silence let us compensate ourselves for that cruel chastity we are obliged to display in public.”

“Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain”

“One must do violence to the object of one's desire; when it surrenders, the pleasure is greater.”