Voltaire

It would be very singular that all nature, all the planets, should obey eternal laws, and that there should be a little animal five feet high, who, in contempt of these laws, could act as he pleased, solely according to his caprice.

Most of my life has been one tragedy after another, most of which hasn't happened.

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.

How I like the boldness of the English, how I like the people who say what they think!

History is fables agreed upon.

One always begins with the simple, then comes the complex, and by superior enlightenment one often reverts in the end to the simple. Such is the course of human intelligence.

So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one's fatherland is to wish evil to one's neighbors. The citizen of the universe would be the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer.

Is politics nothing other than the art of deliberately lying?

When his highness sends a ship to Egypt, does he trouble his head whether the mice on board are at their ease or not?

Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.

Come! you presence will either give me life or kill me with pleasure.

God has punished the knave, and the devil has drowned the rest.

I am the best-natured creature in the world, and yet I have already killed three, and of these three two were priests.

the women are never at a loss, God provides for them, let us run.

The effervescence of this fresh wine reveals the true brilliance of the French people.

I serve your Beaune to my friends, but your Volnay I keep for myself.

Chess is a game which reflects most honor on human wit.

The adjective is the enemy of the noun. Variant: The adjective is the enemy of the substantive.

The only reward to be expected from literature is contempt if one fails and hatred if one succeeds.

If you are attacked as regards your style, never reply; it is for your work alone to make answer.

The superfluous is very necessary.

No, nothing has the power to part me from you; our love is based upon virtue, and will last as long as our lives.

A witty quote proves nothing.

Men who have seen life and death... as an unbroken continuum, the swinging pendulum, have been able to move as freely into death as they walked through life. Socrates went to the grave almost perplexed by his companions' tears.

God created sex. Priests created marriage.

Your destiny is that of a man, your vows those of a god.

I have a simple philosophy: Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches. Alice Roosevelt Longworth Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.

Changing a habit is hard work. But it's harder to find work that would be more fulfilling

Present opportunities are not to be neglected; they rarely visit us twice.

If you wish to converse with me, define your terms.