Voltaire

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

The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third.

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

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

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

A lawyers dream of heaven; every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to recover it from all his forefathers.

We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.

Socialists think profits are a vice; I consider losses the real vice.

It’s not burn baby burn, but learn, baby, learn, so that you can earn, baby, earn.

The power of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried.

To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you can not eat.

People die of fright and live of confidence.

The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.

All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

For death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity.

Renunciation remains sorrow, though a sorrow borne willingly.

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.