Voltaire

"It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong."

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."

"The secret of being tiresome is to tell everything."

"It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce."

"Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous."

"Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors."

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

"I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil."

"The multitude of books is making us ignorant."

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

"Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool."

"Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination."

"Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us."

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

"Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes."

"You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time - but most of the time they will make fools of themselves."

"Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls."

"Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense."

"The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker."

"To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd."

"As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities."

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

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

"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." - Épître à l'auteur du livre des trois imposteurs

"If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated." - Le Sottisier

"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it." - letter (1767)

"I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write." - letter (1770)

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one." - letter (to Frederick the Great, 1767)

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

"The best is the enemy of the good." - Philosophical Dictionary

"Love truth, but pardon error." - Sept discours en vers sur l'homme

"The secret of being a bore is to tell everything." - Sept discours en vers sur l'homme

"It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one." - Zadig