ThursdayFeb 05, 2026
Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969
He who thinks himself wise, O heavens! is a great fool.
He who is merely just is severe.
Work keeps us from three great evils, boredom, vice and need.
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
The public is a ferocious beast one must either chain it up or flee from it.
I have no sceptre, but I have a pen.
Paradise is where I am.
Optimism, said Candide, is a mania for maintaining all that is well when things are going badly.
I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.
Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.
In this country [England] it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, to encourage the others. The reference is to Admiral John Byng, who was executed in 1757 for failing to prevent the French from taking Minorca.
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.
Doctors prescribe medicine of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of which they know nothing.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one.
We must cultivate our garden.
Common sense is not so common.
In this best of possible worlds ... all is for the best.
If this is the best of possible worlds ... what then are the others?
This is the happiest of mortals, for he is above everything he possesses.
Doubt is a not a pleasant mental state, but certainty is a ridiculous one.
... it would be very singular that all nature, all the planets, should obey eternal laws, and that there should be a little animal five feet high, who, in contempt of these laws, could act as he pleased, solely according to his caprice.
It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.
I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.
Change everything except your loves.
'You are right,' said Pangloss, 'for when man was placed in the Garden of Eden, he was placed there ut operaretur eum, to dress it and keep it; which proves that man was not born for idleness.'
Not to be occupied, and not to exist, amount to the same thing.
A woman can keep one secret the secret of her age.
Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or never inventors.
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
Men use thought only to justify their wrong doings, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts. Ils ne se servent de la pensée que pour autoriser leurs injustices, et emploient les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pensées.
Thought depends absolutely on the stomach, but in spite of that, those who have the best stomachs are not the best thinkers.
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
The way to be a bore is to say everything.
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.
Every style that is not boring is good. All styles are good save the tiresome kind.
Who has not the spirit of his age, Of his age has all the unhappiness.
We cannot always oblige, but we can always speak obligingly.
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
The sentiment of justice is so natural, and so universally acquired by all mankind, that it seems to be independent of all law, all party, all religion.
This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.
The right of commanding is no longer an advantage transmitted by nature; like an inheritance, it is the fruit of labors, the price of courage.
The biggest reward for a thing well done is to have done it.
The individual who prosecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.
He who has heard the same thing told by 12,000 eye-witnesses has only 12,000 probabilities, which are equal to one strong probability, which is far from certain.
Prejudice is an opinion without judgment.
The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good, are the two most important aims of philosophy.
When he who hears doesn't know what he who speaks means, and when he who speaks doesn't know what he himself means that is philosophy.
Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another. The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbor's, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.
There are no sects in geometry.
Minds differ still more than faces.
Men argue; nature acts.
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
Love truth, but pardon error.
Whatever you do, trample down abuses, and love those who love you. Different translation: Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing [superstition], and love those who love you.
Liberty of thought is the life of the soul.
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
One feels like crawling on all fours after reading your work.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
History is but the record of crimes and misfortunes. L'histoire n'est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
It is said that God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions. On dit que Dieu est toujours pour les gros bataillons
I also know that we should cultivate our gardens.
I envy animals for two things their ignorance of evil to come, and their ignorance of what is said about them.
Monsieur labbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongues, at our peril, risk and hazard.
The first who was king was a fortunate soldier: Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. It is not enough that a thing be possible for it to be believed.
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.
To enjoy life we must touch much of it lightly.
Sir, your remarks are repugnant to me, and I disagree with your viewpoints. But I will defend to the death your right to express them.
It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.
The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.
'I have no more than twenty acres of ground,' he replied, 'the whole of which I cultivate myself with the help of my children; and our labor keeps off from us the three great evils - boredom, vice, and want.'
All is for the best in the best of possible worlds.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing; it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Animals have these advantages over man: They never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.
The superfluous, a very necessary thing.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
Men use thought only to justify their wrongdoings, And speech only to conceal their thoughts.
We owe respect to the living; to the dead we owe nothing but truth.
Marriage is the only adventure open to the timid.
Slavery is also as ancient as war, And war as human nature.
Tears are the silent language of grief.
The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
The discovery of what is true, and the practice of that which is good, are the two most important objects of philosophy.
The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.
The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
The secret of being tiresome is in telling everything.
The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.
There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: - it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, And we must conceal it.
The secret of being boring is to say everything.
Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great And feeling souls.
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
Work keeps at bay three great evils: Boredom, vice, and need.
Whoe'er thou art, thy master see; He was - or is - or is to be.
When is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, this is metaphysics.
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
Weakness on both sides is, as we know, the motto of all quarrels.
War is the greatest of all crimes; and yet there is no Aggressor who does not color his crime with the pretext of justice.
Virtue is everywhere the same, because it comes from God, while everything else is of men.
Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.
Use, do not abuse; nether abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
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 best is the enemy of the good.
This body, which was called and still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was not Holy, nor Roman , nor an Empire.
A multitude of laws in a country is like a great number of physicians, a sign of weakness and malady.
Better is the enemy of good.
By appreciation we make excellence in others our own property.
Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.
Doctors prescribe medicine of which they know little to cure diseases of which they know lessen human beings of which they know nothing.
Everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
Fortune! There is no fortune; all is trial, or punishment, or recompense, or foresight.
Four thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what the soul is.
I know of nothing more laughable than a doctor who does not die of old age.
Fear follows crime, and is its punishment.
Liberty, then, about which so many volumes have been written is, when accurately defined, only the power of acting.
Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.
Man can have only a certain number of teeth, hair and ideas; there comes a time when he necessarily loses his teeth, hair and ideas.
Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason At all; and others, to persecute those who do reason.
Men are in general so tricky, so envious, so cruel, that when we find one who is only weak, we are happy.
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
It is with books as with men: A very small number play a great part, the rest are lost in the multitude.
What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
'That is indisputable,' was the answer, 'but in this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.'
Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.
Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
A witty saying proves nothing.
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