Voltaire
98 quotations
History is just the portrayal of crimes and misfortunes.
Shun idleness is the rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.
In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
I was never ruined but twice; once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I won one.
I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
My life is a battle.
By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.
A long dispute means that both parties are wrong
Men argue, nature acts.
Weakness on both sides is, the motto of all quarrels.
In this country it's a good thing to kill an admiral now and then to encourage the others.
Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.
We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
Four thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what the soul is.
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
How I like the boldness of the English, how I like the people who say what they think!
The superfluous is very necessary.
The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors.
Originality is nothing but judicious plagiarism.
Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; she requires the hand of time.
The public is a ferocious beast. One must either chain it up or flee from it.