Voltaire

Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day.

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.

Ice-cream is exquisite – what a pity it isn’t illegal.

The superfluous, a very necessary thing.

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

A sudden bold and unexpected question does many times surprise a man and lay him open.

Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

Out of love and hatred, out of earnings and borrowings and leadings and losses; out of sickness and pain; out of wooing and worshipping; out of traveling and voting and watching and caring; out of disgrace and contempt, comes our tuition in the serene and beautiful laws.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.

Duties are not performed for duty’s sake, but because their neglect would make the man uncomfortable. A man performs but one duty -the duty of contenting his spirit, the duty of making himself agreeable to himself.

Them meaning of good and bad, of better and worse, is simply helping or hurting.

There was the cell where Fr. Eulalio, a thriving lunatic of eighty-six who was castigating himself for unchristian pride at having all the vowels in his name, and greatly revered for his continuous weeping, went blind in an ecstasy of such howling proportions that his canonization was assured.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

The rich mind lies in the sun and sleeps, and is Nature.

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.

So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

Heroism feels and never reasons, and therefore is always right.