Of all the vices, avarice is the most generally detested; it is the effect of an avidity common to all men; it is because men hate those from whom they can expect nothing. The greedy misers rail at sordid misers. — Claude Adrien Helvetius Copy Share Image
When a miser contents himself with giving nothing, and saving what he has got, and is in other respects guilty of no injustice, he is, perhaps, of all bad men the least injurious to society; the evil he does is… — Claude Adrien Helvetius Copy Share Image
Every man without passions has within him no principle of action, nor motive to act. — Claude Adrien Helvetius Copy Share Image
A man who believes that he eats his God we do not call mad; yet, a man who says he is Jesus Christ, we… — Claude Adrien Helvetius Copy Share Image
The men of sense, the idols of the shallow, are very inferior to the men of passions. It is the strong passions which, rescuing… — Claude Adrien Helvetius Copy Share Image
To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools… — Claude Adrien Helvetius Copy Share Image
No nation has reason to regard itself superior to others by virtue of its innate endowment. — Claude Adrien Helvetius Copy Share Image
To be loved, we should merit but little esteem; all superiority attracts awe and aversion. — Claude Adrien Helvetius Copy Share Image
The degree of genius necessary to please us is pretty nearly the same proportion that we ourselves have. — Claude Adrien Helvetius Copy Share Image
By annihilating the desires, you annihilate the mind. Every man without passions has within him no principle of action, nor motive to act. — Claude Adrien Helvetius Copy Share Image
Pleasure and pain are the only springs of action in man, and always will be. — Claude Adrien Helvetius Copy Share Image
