Voltaire

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

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

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.

The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

Society therefore is an ancient as the world.

God is the same everywhere.

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.

Don’t worry that you won’t attain oneness. Work on it!

I dressed the part and slipped into my Sunday best. I peeled open the heavy doors to every church I could find.

There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.

Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.

One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.

The Bible may be the truth, but it is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

A miracle is an event which creates faith. That is the purpose and nature of miracles. Frauds deceive. An event which creates faith does not deceive: therefore it is not a fraud, but a miracle.

All beings are by nature Buddha, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddha.

The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflections. The water has no mind to receive their images.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

Let us be grateful to Adam, our benefactor. He cut us out of the blessing of idleness and won for us the curse of labor.

Well, I don’t know, but I’ve been told the streets in heaven are lined with gold. I ask you how things could get much worse if the Russians happen to get up there first; Wowee! pretty scary!