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Voltaire

French writer who was the embodiment of 18th century Enlightenment (1694-1778)

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England has forty-two religions and only two sauces.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.

– Voltaire

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It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

– Voltaire

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Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less in human beings of whom they know nothing.

– Voltaire

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I have lost the half of myself - a soul for which mine was made.

– Voltaire

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The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman nor an Empire.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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Canada: A few acres of snow.

– Voltaire

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In my life, I have prayed but one prayer: oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it.

– Voltaire

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It is far better to be silent than merely to increase the quantity of bad books.

– Voltaire

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Regimen is superior to medicine.

– Voltaire

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To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

– Voltaire

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Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.

– Voltaire

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We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.

– Voltaire

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Work saves us from three great evils boredom, vice and need.

– Voltaire

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It is forbidden to kill therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

– Voltaire

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The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

– Voltaire

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A witty saying proves nothing.

– Voltaire

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Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do.

– Voltaire

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Anything too stupid to be said is sung.

– Voltaire

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It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

– Voltaire

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Common sense is not so common.

– Voltaire

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The way to become boring is to say everything.

– Voltaire

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A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

– Voltaire

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It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge

– Voltaire

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Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.

– Voltaire

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Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

– Voltaire

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God created sex. Priests created marriage.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.

– Voltaire

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Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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Appreciation is a wonderful thing It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

– Voltaire

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I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.

– Voltaire

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The secret of being boring is to say everything.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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'That is indisputable,' was the answer, 'but in this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.'

– Voltaire

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...So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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Men are equal it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.

– Voltaire

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Self-love is the instrument of our preservation.

– Voltaire

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The art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of the citizens to give to the other.

– Voltaire

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You despise books you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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God is always on the side of the big battalions.

– Voltaire

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I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to men that the inventors of syllogisms. He who imagined a ship towers considerably above him who imagined innate ideas.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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All sects are different, because they come from men morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.

– Voltaire

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Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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Once the people begin to reason, all is lost.

– Voltaire

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Truth is a fruit which should not be plucked until it is ripe.

– Voltaire

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You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

– Voltaire

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Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

– Voltaire

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Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

– Voltaire

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It is new fancy rathert than taste which produces so many new fashions.

– Voltaire

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Love truth, and pardon error.

– Voltaire

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Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

– Voltaire

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Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.

– Voltaire

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One of the chief misfortunes of honest people is that they are cowardly.

– Voltaire

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Prejudice is opinion without judgement.

– Voltaire

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Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were of course exterminated.

– Voltaire

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The greatest consolation in life is to say what one thinks.

– Voltaire

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The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors.

– Voltaire

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The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him.

– Voltaire

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The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

– Voltaire

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The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

– Voltaire

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The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

– Voltaire

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The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.

– Voltaire

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There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.

– Voltaire

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There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics... We repeat, there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer.

– Voltaire

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This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

– Voltaire

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This poem will never reach its destination.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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Use, do not abuse neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.

– Voltaire

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Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.

– Voltaire

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We are all full of weakness and errors, let us mutually pardon each other our follies it is the first law of nature.

– Voltaire

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We are rarely proud when we are alone.

– Voltaire

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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.

– Voltaire

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

– Voltaire

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Your book is dedicated by the soundest reason. You had better get out of France as quickly as you can.

– Voltaire

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