The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed.

Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.

Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.

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

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

There are two things that one must get used to or one will find life unendurable: the damages of time and injustices of men.

Life is filigree work. What is written clearly is not worth much, it’s the transparency that counts.

All passions exaggerate; and they are passions only because they do exaggerate.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

Let us read and let us dance – two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.

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

Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.

The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say; but the flowery style...

We always keep God waiting while we admit more importunate suitors.

Celebrity is the advantage of being known to people who we don’t know, and who don’t know us.

All the idols made by man, however terrifying they may be, are in point of fact subordinate to him, and that is why he will always have it in his power to destroy them.

We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.

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.

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.

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

We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.

To understand everything makes one very indulgent.

Love is more pleasant than marriage for the same reason that novels are more amusing than history.

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

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.

Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.

It is commonly supposed that the art of pleasing is a wonderful aid in the pursuit of fortune; but the art of being bored is infinitely more successful.

Almost every desire a poor man has is a punishable offence.

There are various sorts of curiosity; one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us; and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know...

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.

Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.

The secret of being tiresome is in telling everything.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn.

Philosophy, like medicine, has plenty of drugs, few good remedies, and hardly any specific cures.

Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with the absolute truth.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third.

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

I have only ever made one prayer to God, a very short one: O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it.

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

Love is the whole history of a woman’s life, it is but an episode in a man’s.

Of all days, the day on which one has not laughed is the one most surely wasted.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

All styles are good except the tiresome kind.

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

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones.