Voltaire

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.

The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

If we are but sure the end is right, we are too apt to gallop over all bounds to compass it; not considering the lawful ends may be very unlawfully attained.

My facts shall be falsehoods to the common sense. I would so state facts that they shall be significant, shall be myths or mythologies. Facts which the mind perceived, thoughts which the body thought – with these I deal.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.

My love for you was like a poem I wrote; one that I disregarded as average. Torn out, thrown away to the rubbish heap, waiting; wishing to be picked up and appreciated by someone else, for the masterpiece that it is.

The liar’s punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.

Let us eat and drink neither forgetting death unduly nor remembering it. The Lord hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, etc., and the less we think about it the better.

The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.

Logic is like the sword

When you ascend the hill of prosperity, may you not meet a friend.

A lucky person gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they’re about to do and thinks it still matters.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.

When you cannot get a compliment in any other way pay yourself one.

I could have become a soldier if I had waited; I knew more about retreating than the man who invented retreating.

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