Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

L’homme est libre au moment qu’il veut l’être.

A true god surely cannot have been born of a girl, nor died on the gibbet, nor be eaten in a piece of dough… [or inspired] books, filled with contradictions, madness, and horror.

It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.

All I know,’ said Candide, ‘is that we must cultivate our garden.

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

I was never ruined but twice – once when I lost a lawsuit, once when I won one

He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.

When we hear news we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation

I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition

Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them

What a heavy burden is a name that has become famous too soon.

If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him.

An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.

I’ve decided to be happy because it’s good for my health.

These marranos go wherever there is money to be made.

Da ich nun einmal nicht imstande war, die Menschen vernünftiger zu machen, war ich lieber fern von ihnen glücklich.

It is not improbable that in hot countries, monkeys may have enslaved girls.

Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them

Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.

He who doesn’t have the spirit of his time, has all its misery.

A witty saying proves nothing.

He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

For seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm

Work is often the father of pleasure.

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

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed from one another. The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it...

What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men, and that as a result he’s certain he’ll go to heaven if he cuts your throat?

Men employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.

Speaking of Newton but also commenting more broadly on education and the Enlightenment: “I have seen a professor of mathematics only because he was great in his vocation, buried like a king who had done...

The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes the greater is their power to harm us

Prejudice is an opinion without judgment

The Pope is an idol whose hands are tied and whose feet are kissed.

Judge a person by their questions, rather than their answers.

Providence has given us hope and sleep as a compensation for the many cares of life

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

By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.

Men argue, nature acts.

My life is a struggle.

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.

Love truth, but pardon error.

Men argue. Nature acts.

Let us cultivate our garden.

I have seen so many extraordinary things that nothing seems extraordinary to me