Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.
Now, now my good man, this is no time to be making enemies."(Voltaire on his deathbed in response to a priest asking him that he renounce Satan.)
If you want good laws, burn those you have and make new ones.
At a great distance appeared with the same pomp the sheep of Thebes, the dog of Bubastis, the cat of Phoebe, the crocodile of Arsinoe, the goat of Mendes, and all the inferior gods of Egypt, who came...
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciproc
The best is the enemy of good.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it.
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
In cities where peace and the arts flourish, men are more consumed by jealousy, worry, and anxiety than they are in cities under the blight of a besieging army. Private sorrows are more bitter than pu...
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.
It is forbidden to kill therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
Weakness on both sides is as we know the motto of all quarrels.
The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
What's optimism? said Cacambo. Alas, said Candide, it is a mania for saying things are well when one is in hell.