Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
Common sense is not so common.
Love truth, but pardon error.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it." (Letter to Étienne Noël Damilaville, May 16, 1767)
I don’t know where I am going, but I am on my way.
God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
Dare to think for yourself.
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.
Now, now my good man, this is no time to be making enemies." (Voltaire on his deathbed in response to a priest asking him that he renounce Satan.)
Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.
God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.
Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.
It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.
Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.
Faith consists in believing what reason cannot.
Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.
Ice-cream is exquisite. What a pity it isn't illegal.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.
Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
Optimism," said Cacambo, "What is that?" "Alas!" replied Candide, "It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.
The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
You're a bitter man," said Candide. That's because I've lived," said Martin.
What is history? The lie that everyone agrees on...
It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.
Don't think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.
Man is free at the instant he wants to be.
The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
Let us cultivate our garden.
Sensual pleasure passes and vanishes, but the friendship between us, the mutual confidence, the delight of the heart, the enchantment of the soul, these things do not perish and can never be destroyed.
No opinion is worth burning your neighbor for.
Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all.
But for what purpose was the earth formed?" asked Candide. "To drive us mad," replied Martin.
It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part.
The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.
I loved him as we always love for the first time; with idolatry and wild passion.
It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.
If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?
Liberty of thought is the life of the soul.
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us
May God defend me from my friends: I can defend myself from my enemies.
One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything's fine today, that is our illusion
Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.
Perfect is the enemy of good.
It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge.
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
I read only to please myself, and enjoy only what suits my taste.
He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.
History never repeats itself. Man always does.
She blushed and so did he. She greeted him in a faltering voice, and he spoke to her without knowing what he was saying.
Our labour preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice, and want.
The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude.
Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.
I would rather obey a fine lion, much stronger than myself, than two hundred rats of my own species.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid - one must also be polite.
Injustice in the end produces independence.
The best is the enemy of good.
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated." (Notebooks)
To hold a pen is to be at war.
We are rarely proud when we are alone.
Opinions have caused more ills than the plague or earthquakes on this little globe of ours.
Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.
Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.
What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men, and that as a result he's certain he'll go to heaven if he cuts your throat?
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
When a man is in love, jealous, and just whipped by the Inquisition, he is no longer himself.
It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.
If you have two religions in your land, the two will cut each other’s throats; but if you have thirty religions, they will dwell in peace
Minds differ still more than faces.
It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.
Four thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what the soul is.
In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her; but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cars in order to win the game.
The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important aims of philosophy.
Come! you presence will either give me life or kill me with pleasure.
Reading nurtures the soul, and an enlightened friend brings it solace.
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Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien. (The perfect is the enemy of the good.)
Being unable to make people more reasonable, I preferred to be happy away from them
Doctors put drugs of which they know little into bodies of which they know less for diseases of which they know nothing at all.
There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.
If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new.
I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.
The greatest consolation in life is to say what one thinks.
In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
Martin in particular concluded that man was born to live either in the convulsions of misery, or in the lethargy of boredom.
Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.
