Voltaire

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.

The superfluous, a very necessary thing.

It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part.

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.

The ancients recommended us to sacrifice to the Graces, but Milton sacrificed to the Devil.

Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period. When it has come to the knowledge of good and evil it is stronger, but we care less about it.

Birth and death are so closely related that one could not destroy either without destroying the other at the same time. It is extinction that makes creation possible.

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.

Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.

He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still.

In the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence, and famine.

As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along.

You cannot have power for good without having power for evil too. Even mother’s milk nourishes murderers as well as heroes.

He looks the whole world in the face for he owes not any man.

Better see rightly on a pound a week than squint on a million.

There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

No poems can please for long or live that are written by water-drinkers.