Voltaire

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

This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.

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.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

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

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

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

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

The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.

Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.

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

It is not known precisely where angels dwell whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we should be informed of their abode.

It is love; love, the comfort of the human species, the preserver of the universe, the soul of all sentient beings, love, tender love.

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

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.

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

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

The ear is the avenue to the heart.

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

Religion was instituted to make us happy in this life and in the other. What must we do to be happy in the life to come? Be just.