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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The superfluous is very necessary.
It is only through timidity that states are lost.
The public is a ferocious beast. One must either chain it up or flee from it.
Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel.
The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors.
The discover of what is true, and the practice of that which is good, are the two most important objects of philosophy.
How I like the boldness of the English, how I like the people who say what they think!
In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; she requires the hand of time.
My prayer to God is a very short one: O Lord, make my enemies look ridiculous! God has granted it.
It is as impossible to translate poetry as it is to translate music.
The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
Originality is nothing but judicious plagiarism.
Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them.
When he to whom a person speaks does not understand, and he who speaks does not understand himself, that is metaphysics.
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
Four thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what the soul is.
The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.
I know of no great man except those who have rendered great services to the human race.
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy; the mad daughter of a wise mother.
I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.
The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
I was never ruined but twice; once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I won one.
My life is a battle.
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to men that the inventors of syllogisms. He who imagined a ship towers considerably above him who imagined innate ideas.
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
