Voltaire

It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.

Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Where you stand depends on where you sit.

Tis admirable to consider, how Powerful the Kings are, yet they move by the Breath of their People.

Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.

Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.

The only prudence in life is concentration.

Be careless in your dress if you will, but keep a tidy soul.

How we glow over these novels of passion, when the story is told with any spark of truth and nature! And what fastens attention, in the intercourse of life, like any passage betraying affection between two parties? Perhaps we never saw them before and never shall meet them again. But we see them exchange a glance or betray a deep emotion, and we are no longer strangers. We understand them and take the warmest interest in the development of the romance. All mankind love a lover.

A vow is a snare for sin.

It is very natural for young men to be vehement, acrimonious and severe. For as they seldom comprehend at once all the consequences of a position, or perceive the difficulties by which cooler and more experienced reasoners are restrained from confidence, they form their conclusions with great precipitance. Seeing nothing that can darken or embarrass the question, they expect to find their own opinion universally prevalent, and are inclined to impute uncertainty and hesitation to want of honesty, rather than of knowledge.

He’s a man of great common sense and good taste – meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.

Blows are sarcasm’s turned stupid.

We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.

Men who for truth and honor’s sake stand fast and suffer long. Brave men who work while others sleep. Who dare while others fly.They build a nation’s pillars deep. And lift them to the sky.

Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought.

Don’t learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them be bona fide falls in the rough and tumble of the world.