Voltaire

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

Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same.

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.

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.

History should be written as philosophy.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.

The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.

He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend provided, of course, he really is dead.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

In this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.

All styles are good except the tiresome kind.

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.

Better is the enemy of good.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

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

To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.

The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.

If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

It is not known precisely where angels dwell whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we should be informed of their abode.

If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him.

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.

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

God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

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

We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.

It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.

The superfluous, a very necessary thing.