François-Marie Arouet ( 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day. {more}
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"Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game."
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"Common sense is not so common."
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"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere."
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"It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong."
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"All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women."
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"The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself."
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"Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable."
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"No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking."
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"To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth."
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"The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire."
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"Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung."
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"We never live; we are always in the expectation of living."
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"The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination."
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"Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts."
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"If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him."
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"It is said that the present is pregnant with the future."
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"History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes."
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"Illusion is the first of all pleasures."
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"What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous."
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"The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice."
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"Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another."
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"Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause."
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"What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy."
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"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
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“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
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“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.”
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“I don’t know where I am going, but I am on my way.”
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"“God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.”
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“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”
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“It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.”
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“The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.”
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“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.”
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“It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.”
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“What is history? The lie that everyone agrees on...”
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“Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.”
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“Dont think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.”
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“The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.”
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“Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.”
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“The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us”
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“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”
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