Voltaire

But nothing is more estimable than a physician who, having <br />studied nature from his youth, knows the properties of the human <br />body, the diseases which assail it, the remedies which will <br />benefit it, exercises his art with caution, and pays equal <br />attention to the rich and the poor.<br /> - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire),

Your Majesty may think me an impatient sick man, and that the <br />Turks are even sicker.

The first king was a successful soldier;<br /> He who serves well his country has no need of ancestors.<br /> [Fr., Le premier qui fut roi, fut un soldat heureux;<br /> Qui sert bien son pays, n'a pas besoin d'aleux.]

Wishers and woulders be small householders.

We cannot wish for that we know not.<br /> [Fr., On ne peut desirer ce qu'on ne connait pas.]

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies <br />about them when they die.<br /> [Fr., La satire ment sur les gens de lettres pendant leur vie, et <br />l'eloge ment apres leur mort.]

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.<br /> [Fr., La patrie est aux lieux ou l'ame est enchainee.]

Injustice in the end produces independence.<br /> [Fr., L'injustice a la fin produit l'independance.]

Common sense is not so common.<br /> [Fr., Le sens commun n'est pas si common.]<br /> - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire),

How inexpressible is the meanness of being a hypocrite! how <br />horrible is it to be a mischievous and malignant hypocrite.<br /> - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire),

If the bookseller happens to desire a privilege for his <br />merchandise, whether he is selling Rabelais or the Fathers of the <br />Church, the magistrate grants the privilege without answering for <br />the contents of the book.<br /> - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire),

The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or <br />addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties <br />are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say; but <br />the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, <br />or a didactic work.<br /> - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire),

All styles are good except the tiresome kind.<br /> [Fr., Tous les genres sont bons, hors le genre ennuyeux.]

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them

I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition

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

I know of no great men except those who have rendered great service to the human race.

We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongues, at our peril, risk and hazard.

I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.

For seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm

Once the people begin to reason, all is lost

\'I can't\' isn't a reason to give up, it's a reason to try harder

A long dispute means both parties are wrong

Fear follows crime, and is its punishment

Providence has given us hope and sleep as a compensation for the many cares of life

Prejudice is the reason of fools

Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls.

When he who hears does not know what he who speaks means, and when he who speaks does not know what he himself means, that is philosophy

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time

It requires ages to destroy a popular opinion