Voltaire

In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.

Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

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

In this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.

What is the imagination? Only an arm or weapon of the interior energy; only the precursor of the reason.

It’s powerful to have strong men but what does that strength mean?

Self-suggestion makes you master of yourself.

Those that are little, little things suit.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

Sympathy is a supporting atmosphere, and in it we unfold easily and well.

Try not. Do or do not… there is no try.

He that hath knowledge spareth his words.

Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.

He who would begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin.

For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.

Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.

Nations! What are nations? Tartars! and Huns! and Chinamen! Like insects they swarm. The historian strives in vain to make them memorable. It is for want of a man that there are so many men. It is individuals that populate the world.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.