Voltaire

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

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

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

Nature has always had more force than education.

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

It is not known precisely where angels dwell whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God’s pleasure that we should be informed of their abode.

Some critics will write ‘Maya Angelou is a natural writer’ – which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.

Liberty is slow fruit. It is never cheap; it is made difficult because freedom is the accomplishment and perfectness of man.

Time dissipates to shining ether the solid angularity of facts.

Be ever on your guard what you say of anybody and to whom.

We are not won by arguments that we can analyze, but by tone and temper; by the manner, which is the man himself.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

If a man owns land, the land owns him.

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.

There are charms made only for distance admiration.

Remember, when life’s path is steep, to keep your mind even.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I’ll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.

The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other.

Above all, we must avoid the pitfalls of tribalism. If we are divided among ourselves on tribal lines, we open our doors to foreign intervention and its potentially harmful consequences.

The soul is pure when it leaves the body and drags nothing bodily with it, by virtue of having no willing association with the body in life but avoiding it… Practicing philosophy in the right way is a training to die easily.