Voltaire
Men are in general so tricky, so envious, and so cruel that when we find one who is only weak, we are too happy.Collection: Men
Will is wish, and liberty is power.Collection: Freedom
Nothing could be smarter, more splendid, more brilliant, better drawn up than two armies. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, cannons, formed a harmony such as never been heard in hell.Collection: Army
To caress the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten away our heart.Collection: Heart
All the arts are brothers; each one is a light to the others.Collection: Art
How inexpressible is the meanness of being a hypocrite! how horrible is it to be a mischievous and malignant hypocrite.Collection: Hypocrite
The right of commanding is no longer an advantage transmitted by nature; like an inheritance, it is the fruit of labors, the price of courage.Collection: Leadership
A torch lighted in the forests of America set all Europe in conflagration.Collection: Europe
Friends should be preferred to kings.Collection: Kings
Men must have somewhat altered the course of nature; for they were not born wolves, yet they have become wolves. God did not give them twenty-four-pounders or bayonets, yet they have made themselves bayonets and guns to destroy each other. In the same category I place not only bankruptcies, but the law which carries off the bankrupts’ effects, so as to defraud their creditors.Collection: Gun
Know that the secret of the arts is to correct nature.Collection: Art
Man is free the moment he wants to be.Collection: Men
The adjective is the enemy of the noun. Variant: The adjective is the enemy of the substantive.Collection: Writing
The best way to be boring is to include everything.Collection: Boredom
This poem will never reach its destination. On Rousseau's Ode To PosterityCollection: Poetry
Custom, law bent my first years to the religion of the happy Muslims. I see it too clearly: the care taken of our childhood forms our feelings, our habits, our belief. By the Ganges I would have been a slave of the false gods, a Christian in Paris, a Muslim here.Collection: Christian
There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics.Collection: Math
History in general is a collection of crimes, follies, and misfortunes among which we have now and then met with a few virtues, and some happy times.Collection: Happy Times
Now is not the time for making new enemies.Collection: Enemy
He who has heard the same thing told by 12,000 eye-witnesses has only 12,000 probabilities, which are equal to one strong probability, which is far from certain.Collection: Strong
It is not a mistress I have lost but half of myself, a soul for which my soul seems to have been made.Collection: Soul
He was my equal in beauty, a paragon of grace and charm, sparkling with wit, and burning with love. I adored him to distraction, to the point of idolatry: I loved him as one can never love twice.Collection: Grace
Descartes constructed as noble a road of science, from the point at which he found geometry to that to which he carried it, as Newton himself did after him. ... He carried this spirit of geometry and invention into optics, which under him became a completely new art.Collection: Art
Before receiving your instruction, I must tell you what happened to me one day. I had just had a closet built at the end of my garden. I heard a mole arguing with a cockchafer; 'Here's a fine structure,' said the mole, 'it must have been a very powerful mole who did this work.' 'You're joking,' said the cockchafer; 'it's a cockchafer full of genius who is the architect of this building.' From that moment I resolved never to argue.Collection: Powerful
Only your friends steal your books.Collection: Book
Men will commit atrocities as long as they believe absurdities.Collection: Believe
The question of good and evil remains in irremediable chaos for those who seek to fathom it in reality. It is mere mental sport to the disputants, who are captives that play with their chains.Collection: Sports
Reading nurtures the soul, and an enlightened friend brings it solace.Collection: Reading
There are men who can think no deeper than a fact.Collection: Funny
He wanted to know how they prayed to God in El Dorado. "We do not pray to him at all," said the reverend sage. "We have nothing to ask of him. He has given us all we want, and we give him thanks continually.Collection: Giving
We are obliged to place ourselves on the level of our age before we can rise above it.Collection: Age
It is not enough to be exceptionally mad, licentious and fanatical in order to win a great reputation; it is still necessary to arrive on the scene at the right time.Collection: Success
Optimism," said Cacambo, "What is that?" "Alas!" replied Candide, "It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.Collection: Optimistic
If you want good laws, burn those you have and make new ones.Collection: Law
The worthy administrators of justice are like a cat set to take care of a cheese, lest it should be gnawed by the mice. One bite of the cat does more damage to the cheese than twenty mice can do.Collection: Cat
my soul is the mirror of the universe, and my body is its frameCollection: Mirrors
What is toleration? It is the prerogative of humanity. We are all steeped in weaknesses and errors: Let us forgive one another's follies, it is the first law of nature.Collection: Errors
Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.Collection: Depression
When truth is evident, it is impossible for parties and factions to rise. There never has been a dispute as to whether there is daylight at noon.Collection: Party
The policy of man consists, at first, in endeavoring to arrive at a state equal to that of animals, whom nature has furnished with food, clothing, and shelter.Collection: Animal
A woman can keep one secret the secret of her age.Collection: Women
Inspiration: A peculiar effect of divine flatulence emitted by the Holy Spirit which hisses into the ears of a few chosen of God.Collection: Inspiration
A physician is an unfortunate gentleman who is every day required to perform a miracle; namely to reconcile health with intemperance.Collection: Health
A multitude of laws in a country is like a great number of physicians, a sign of weakness and malady.Collection: Country
History is a pack of lies we play on the dead.Collection: Lying
Let each of us boldly and honestly say: How little it is that I really know!Collection: Littles
Indolence is sweet, and its consequences bitter.Collection: Sweet
Let us confess it: evil strides the world.Collection: Evil
God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart to the finest verses chanted by the wicked.Collection: Prayer