Paul-Henri Thiry Holbach

"Man is unhappy because he does not know he is happy; it is only that which makes him unhappy."

"All religions are founded on fables and mysteries; and it is impossible that we should ever be tolerably happy."

"Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing."

"Man's life is a line between the nothing from which it comes and the nothing into which it goes."

"Nature, time and patience are the three great physicians."

"If we examine the opinions of men, we shall find that nothing is more uncommon than common sense."

"The source of man's unhappiness is his ignorance of Nature."

"Fear is the main source of superstition and one of the main sources of cruelty."

"Those who make the worst use of their time are the same ones who complain that it passes too quickly."

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."

"We must flee the night; when the sun leaves us, reason abandons us too."

"Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art."

"The source of our misery is rooted in religious superstition and political tyranny."

"Ignorance is the mother of devotion."

"Justice is nothing more than a convention established among men to prevent mutual injury."

"Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains."

"Nature alone is always beautiful."

"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things."

"Everything in Nature is a miracle."

"It is in our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light."

"Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do."

"The virtues which are acquired by habit are strengthened by their use."

"Admiration is the daughter of ignorance."

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything."

"All cruelty springs from weakness."

"The perfect religion would be one that could diminish cruelty."

"History is full of the sound of silently breaking treaties."

"There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste."

"Men are not against you; they are merely for themselves."