Voltaire

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.

To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

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

It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace.

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

He has not lived badly whose birth and death has been unnoticed by the world.

There are those that are void of all mercy, but when it comes the time that they are on their knees, they plead for it. Those that were born with the art of deception, never sincere with their words or actions. But mercy is not theirs to take, only for you to give. Never compromise your standards, your beliefs and become like the ones who you are fighting against, but stay resolute to who you are.

God enters by a private door into every individual.

True irreverence is disrespect for another man’s god.

All of our actions take their hue from the complexion of the heart, as landscapes their variety from light.

Ladies and gentleman are permitted to have friends in the kennel, but not in the kitchen.

The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic.

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

You may try but you can never imagine what it is to have a man’s form of genius in you, and to suffer the slavery of being a girl.

The egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief.

You perceive I generalize with intrepidity from single instances. It is the tourist’s custom.

Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.

All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.