Voltaire
Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.Collection: Power
The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.Collection: Architecture
The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.Collection: Best
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.Collection: Patriotism
History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.Collection: History
Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him.Collection: Men
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.Collection: Religion
To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.Collection: Truth
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.Collection: Brainy
We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.Collection: Gardening
Religion was instituted to make us happy in this life and in the other. What must we do to be happy in the life to come? Be just.Collection: Religion
When men do not have healthy notions of the Divinity, false ideas supplant them, just as in bad times one uses counterfeit money when there is no good money.Collection: Men
He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.Collection: Sad
Tears are the silent language of grief.Collection: Sympathy
Such is the feebleness of humanity, such is its perversity, that doubtless it is better for it to be subject to all possible superstitions, as long as they are not murderous, than to live without religion.Collection: Religion
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.Collection: Faith
Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.Collection: Marriage
God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.Collection: God
The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.Collection: Great
Common sense is not so common.Collection: Intelligence
To hold a pen is to be at war.Collection: Communication
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.Collection: Good
Fear follows crime and is its punishment.Collection: Fear
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.Collection: History
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.Collection: Nature
He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.Collection: Sad
God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.Collection: Birthday
The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.Collection: Home
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?Collection: Experience
All styles are good except the tiresome kind.Collection: Good
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.Collection: God
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.Collection: Time
It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.Collection: Legal
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.Collection: Famous
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.Collection: Money
Nature has always had more force than education.Collection: Nature
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.Collection: Future
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.Collection: Brainy
Society therefore is as ancient as the world.Collection: Society
It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.Collection: Death
What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking.Collection: Power
We are rarely proud when we are alone.Collection: Alone
Injustice in the end produces independence.Collection: Independence
Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.Collection: Men
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.Collection: God
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.Collection: Nature
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.Collection: God
Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes.Collection: Religion
All men are born with a nose and five fingers, but no one is born with a knowledge of God.Collection: God
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.Collection: Life