The world is old, but history is of yesterday.—MÉlanges Historiques.

If you would put to profit the present time, one must not spend his life in propagating ancient fables.—Ibid.

A mature man who has serious business does not repeat the tales of his nurse.—Ibid.

Search through all nations and you will not find one whose history does not begin with stories worthy of the Four Sons of Aymon and of Robert the Devil.—Politique et Legislation.

Ancient histories are enigmas proposed by antiquity to posterity, which understands them not—Dict. Phil. (Art. “Histoire”).

A real fact is of more value than a hundred antitheses.—Melanges Historiques.

I have a droll idea. It is that only people who have written tragedies can throw interest into our dry and barbarous history. There is necessary in a history, as in a drama, exposition, knotty plot, and dÉnouement, with agreeable episode.—Corr. gÉn. 1740.

They have made but the history of the kings, not that of the nation. It seems that during fourteen hundred years there were only kings, ministers, and generals among the Gauls. But our morals, our laws, our customs, our intelligence—are these then nothing?—Corr., 1740.

Is fraud sanctified by being antiquated?—Sottisier.

I have ever esteemed it charlatanry to paint, other than by facts, public men with whom we have had no connection.—Corr. gen., 1752.

If one surveys the history of the world, one finds weaknesses punished, but great crimes fortunate, and the world is a vast scene of brigandages abandoned to fortune.—Essai sur les Moeurs, c. 191.

Since the ancient Romans, I have known no nation enriched by victories.—Contant d' Orville, i. 337.

To buy peace from an enemy is to furnish him with the sinews of war.—Ibid, p. 334.

The grand art of surprising, killing, and robbing is a heroism of the highest antiquity.—Dial. 24.

Murderers are punished, unless they kill in grand company to the sound of trumpets; that is the rule.—Dict. Phil. (Art. “Droit”).

We formerly made war in order to eat; but in the long run, all the admirable institutions degenerate.—Dial. 24.

It suffices often that a mad Minister of State shall have bitten another Minister for the rabies to be communicated in a few months to five hundred thousand men.—Ibid.

In this world there (are) only offensive wars; defensive ones are only resistance to armed robbers.—Ibid.

Twenty volumes in folio never yet made a revolution. It is the portable little shilling books that are to be feared. If the Gospel cost twelve hundred sesterces, the Christian religion would never have been established.—Correspondence with D1 Alembert, 1765.