Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

A witty saying proves nothing.

All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do.

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.

Love truth, and pardon error.

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.

Prejudice is opinion without judgment.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

The secret of being boring is to say everything.

There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.

You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.