Voltaire

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.

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

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.

He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.

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

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.

Man is the only animal of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid of.

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.

It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgment.

A man is a god in ruins.

I simply want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.

Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit.

It is your concern when your neighbor’s wall is on fire.

Your playing small does not serve the world. Who are you not to be great?

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, neverin nothing, great or small, large or pettynever give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.

Be a little careful about your library. Do you foresee what you will do with it? Very little to be sure. But the real question is, What it will do with you?

The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.