Voltaire

Society therefore is an ancient as the world.

My life is a struggle.

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same.

If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.

It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.

He that outlives a wife whom he has long loved, sees himself disjoined from the only mind that has the same hopes, and fears, and interest; from the only companion with whom he has shared much good and evil; and with whom he could set his mind at liberty, to retrace the past or anticipate the future. The continuity of being is lacerated; the settled course of sentiment and action is stopped; and life stands suspended and motionless.

The fewer our wants the more we resemble the Gods.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, Sir, I am your most humble servant. You are not his most humble servant. You may say, These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times. You don’t mind the times … You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society; but don’t think foolishly.

All successful men have agreed in one thing – they were causationists. They believed that things went not by luck, but by law; that there was not a weak or a cracked link in the chain that joins the first and last of things.

My finger can point to the moon, but my finger is not the moon. You don’t have to become my finger, nor do you have to worship my finger. You have to forget my finger, and look at where it is pointing.

The truest end of life is to know that life never ends.

You’ll never get anywhere if you go about what-iffing like that. Would Columbus have discovered America if he’d said ‘What if I sink on the way over? What if I meet pirates? What if I never come back?’ He wouldn’t even have started.

America is another name for opportunity.

I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it.

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.

I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.

I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney.

Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man.