Voltaire

It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.

The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.

I hate women because they always know where things are.

The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.

When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

All mankind love a lover.

The great advantage of a hotel is that it is a refuge from home life.

When you know better you do better.

It is easier to stay out than get out.

Life is short, but there is always time for courtesy.

Be not the slave of your own past – plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.

Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety.

If in doubt, don’t. If still in doubt, do what’s right.

A verse from the Veda says, ‘What you see, you become.’ In other words, just the experience of perceiving the world makes you what you are. This is a quite literal statement.

It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again.