Voltaire

The ear is the avenue to the heart.

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

It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.

It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.

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

The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.

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

The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.

All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.

Tears are the silent language of grief.

Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

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 cards in order to win the game.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.