I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.

All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.

I do not agree with a word that you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it

The punishment of criminals should be of use; when a man is hanged he is good for nothing

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense

The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.

History is fables agreed upon.

Men appear to prefer to ruin one another’s fortunes, and to cut each other’s throats over a few miserable villages, than to extend the means of human happiness

It is amusing that a virtue is made of the vice of chastity; and it’s a pretty odd sort of chastity at that, which leads men straight into the sin of Onan, and girls to...

The secret of being tiresome is in telling everything.

We owe respect to the living. To the dead we owe only truth.

Exaggeration is the inseparable companion of greatness.

Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.

The ear is the avenue to the heart.

The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.

All our ancient history, as one of our wits remarked, is no more than accepted fiction.

The Jews are an ignorant and barbarous people, who have long united the most sordid avarice with the most detestable superstition and the most invincible hatred for every people by whom they are tolerated and...

trop de respect souvent mène à l’ingratitude ” .

I know of no great men except those who have rendered great service to the human race.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: “O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny; it says more, and in few words, than prose

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

They (the British) are like their own beer; froth on top, dregs at bottom, the middle excellent

All the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others

To a toad, what is beauty? A female with two pop-eyes, a wide mouth, yellow belly and spotted back

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

History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

Le secret d’ennuyer est celui de tout dire.(The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.)”(Sept Discours en Vers sur l’Homme, 1738)

But for what purpose was the earth formed?” asked Candide. “To drive us mad,” replied Martin.

If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?

We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.

I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.

We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.

Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers

The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.

To announce truths is an infallible receipt for being persecuted.

To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.

Men who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to...

I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.

Rest is a good thing, but boredom is its brother.

Men use thought only to justify their wrong doings, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

Thus, though I dislike to differ with such a great man, Voltaire was simply ludicrous when he said that if god did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. The human invention of...

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.

The heart has its own reasons that reason can’t understand.

Je fus nommé historiographe de France; et le roi me fit présent d’une charge de gentilhomme ordinaire de sa chambre; je conclus que pour faire la plus petite fortune, il valait mieux dire quatre mots...

An infallible method of making fanatics is to persuade before you instruct