Voltaire

History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.

To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.

The superfluous, a very necessary thing.

Fear follows crime and is its punishment.

I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

The betrothed and accepted lover has lost the wildest charms of his maiden by her acceptance. She was heaven while he pursued her, but she cannot be heaven if she stoops to one such as he!

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

In Boston they ask, How much does he know? In New York, How much is he worth? In Philadelphia, Who were his parents?

I lose my respect for the man who can make the mystery of sex the subject of a coarse jest, yet when you speak earnestly and seriously on the subject, is silent.

Leisure may be defined as free activity, labor as compulsory activity. Leisure does what it likes, labor does what it must, the compulsion being that of Nature, which in these latitudes leaves men no choice between labor and starvation.

If it be an evil to judge rashly or untruly any single man, how much a greater sin it is to condemn a whole people.

Rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to hold their own in the world. A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner but more durable metal.

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.

The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem.

Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

Beauty is the mark God sets on virtue. Every natural action is graceful; every heroic act is also decent, and causes the place and the bystanders to shine.

There is a time when a man distinguishes the idea of felicity from the idea of wealth; it is the beginning of wisdom.