Voltaire

All styles are good except the tiresome kind.

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

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.

It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.

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

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

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

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

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.

Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.

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

The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.

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

Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.

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