Voltaire

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.

The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.

Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.

Sir, he throws away his money without thought and without merit. I do not call a tree generous that sheds its fruit at every breeze.

Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio and television and the Internet. To hell with them. They don’t want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood

Your own safety is at stake when your neighbor’s wall is ablaze.

In a man’s letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process. Nothing is inverted, nothing distorted, you see systems in their elements, you discover actions in their motives.

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success; for it supplies as many images to the mind, and as many topics to the tongue.

It is a time when one’s spirit is subdued and sad, one knows not why; when the past seems a storm-swept desolation, life a vanity and a burden, and the future but a way to death.

The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.

Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so. All action is of infinite elasticity, and the least admits of being inflated with celestial air, until it eclipses the sun and moon.

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

Men talk as if victory were something fortunate. Work is victory.

The pleasure we feel in music springs from the obedience which is in it.

Men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.