The General Interest Of The

There Comes A Moment During Which Almost Every Girl Or Boy Falls Into Melancholy; They Are Tormented By A Vague Inquietude Which Rests On Everything And Finds Nothing To Calm It. They Seek Solitude; They Weep; The Silence To Be Found In Cloister Attracts Them: The Image Of Peace That Seems To Reign In Religious Houses Seduces Them. They Mistake The First Manifestations Of A Developing Sexual Nature For The Voice Of God Calling Them To Himself; And It Is Precisely When Nature Is Inciting Them That They Embrace A Fashion Of Life Contrary To Nature's Wish.

For Me, My Thoughts Are My Prostitutes.

Superstition Is More Injurious To God Than Atheism.

One Composition Is Meagre, Though It Has Many Figures; Another Is Rich, Though It Has Few.

The Arbitrary Rule Of A Just And Enlightened Prince Is Always Bad. His Virtues Are The Most Dangerous And The Surest Form Of Seduction: They Lull A People Imperceptibly Into The Habit Of Loving, Respecting, And Serving His Successor, Whoever That Successor May Be, No Matter How Wicked Or Stupid.