Voltaire

History is fables agreed upon.

He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend - provided, of course, that he really is dead.

It is only through timidity that states are lost.

I know of no great man except those who have rendered great services to the human race.

Independence in the end is the fruit of injustice.

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

No snowflake in an avalanch ever feels responsible.

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

The discover of what is true, and the practice of that which is good, are the two most important objects of philosophy.

When he who hears does not know what he who speaks means, and when he who speaks does not know what he himself means, that is philosophy.

I was never ruined but twice once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I won one.

Shun idleness is the rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.

God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions.

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.

May God defend me from my friends I can defend myself from my enemies.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

The public is a ferocious beast one must either chain it or flee from it.

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

The ear is the avenue to the heart.

Society therefore is an ancient as the world.

Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same.

Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.

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

It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.

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