"When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion."

"The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all."

"Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare."

"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 public suffering."

"Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel."

"God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."

"On doit des égards aux vivants, on ne doit aux morts que la vérité."

"In every author let us distinguish the man from his works."

"In this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others."

"Men employ speech only to conceal their thoughts."

"The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence."

"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities."

"Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers."

"If they're from the village, you take them to the inn. If they're from the city, you treat them with respect when they are beautiful and throw them on the highway when they are dead."

"We are rarely proud when we are alone."

"One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything's fine today, that is our illusion."

"I do not know by what power I think; but well I know that I should never have thought without the assistance of my senses. That there are immaterial and intelligent substances I do not at all doubt; but that it is impossible for God to communicate the faculty of thinking to matter, I doubt very much. I revere the Eternal Power, to which it would ill become me to prescribe bounds. I affirm nothing, and am contented to believe that many things are possible than are usually thought so"."

"The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker."

"It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part."

"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere."

"Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one."

"In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another."

"The multitude of books is making us ignorant."

"I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow."

"The fate of a nation has often depended on the good or bad digestion of a prime minister."

"My life is a struggle."

"Having lived with kings, I have become a king in my own home."

"So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one's fatherland is to wish evil to one's neighbors. The citizen of the universe would be the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer."

"The ancients recommended us to sacrifice to the Graces, but Milton sacrificed to the Devil."

"Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?"

"The superfluous is very necessary."

"The superfluous, a very necessary thing."

"And ask each passenger to tell his story, and if there is one of them all who has not cursed his existence many times, and said to himself over and over again that he was the most miserable of men, I give you permission to throw me head-first into the sea."

"Imagine all contradictions, all possible incompatibilities--you will find them in the government, in the law-courts, in the churches, in the public shows of this droll nation."

"Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient."

"He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked."

"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."

"Candide, who trembled like a philosopher, hid himself as well as he could during this heroic butchery."

"Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors."

"The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it."

"It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue."

"We offer up prayers to God only because we have made Him after our own image. We treat Him like a Pasha or a Sultan who is capable of being exasperated and appeased."

"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too."

"Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him."

"Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law."

"Shall I not render a service to men in speaking to them only of morality? This morality is so pure, so holy, so universal, so clear, so ancient, that it seems to come from God himself, like the light which we regard as the first of his works. Has he not given men self-love to secure their preservation; benevolence, beneficence, and virtue to control their self-love; the natural need to form a society; pleasure to enjoy, pain to warn us to enjoy in moderation, passions to spur us to great deeds, and wisdom to curb our passions?"

"Men argue nature acts."

"I loved him as we always love for the first time, with idolatry and wild passion."

"God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best."

"Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal."