Nov 21, 1694 - May 30, 1778
French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and free trade
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In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
All styles are good except the tiresome kind.
He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.
The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.
Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.
To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.
History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.
The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.
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.
To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.
Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.
Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.
The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
My life is a struggle.
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.
We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.
The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.
It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.
The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.
