Voltaire

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

Discord is the great ill of mankind; and tolerance is the only remedy for it.

Dare to think for yourself.

An honest man is always a child.

Today is Trinity Sunday. Centuries ago words were written to be a call and a spur to the faithful servants of Truth and Justice: Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valor, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. As the Will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be.

We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don’t know anything and can’t read.

If you are going through hell, keep going.

I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds: I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

Live as brave men and face adversity with stout hearts.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

There is a crack in everything God has made.

Solitude is impractical and yet society is fatal.

A sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.

Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.

A true friend is somebody who can make us do what we can.

The most dangerous thing is illusion.

Every great achievement is the victory of a flaming heart.