Voltaire

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

Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.

I hate women because they always know where things are.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: “O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it.

The human race was always interesting and we know by its past that it will always continue so, monotonously.

I am the flame, electric blue, lightening, razor-like, renewing my spirit. Heart beating in time to the earth’s rhythm and expanse of black ink sky, overreaching eternal. My fingertips spark with seeds of creation, fireworks coloring canvas, beckoned by this light that lifts me.

It is possible to be free and loving no matter what your circumstances.

A sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.

The Irish are a fair people: They never speak well of one another.

Important encounters are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use the pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time; a tremendous whack.

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.

The liar’s punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.

We meet on the broad pathway of good faith and good will; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love. I will not call you children, — for parents sometimes chide their children too severely; nor brothers only, — for brothers differ. The friendship between me and you I will not compare to a chain; for that the rains might rust, or the falling tree might break. We are the same as if one man’s body were to be divided into two parts, we are all one flesh and blood.