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The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
Voltaire
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Voltaire
Age: 84 †
Born: 1694
Born: February 20
Died: 1778
Died: May 30
Author
Autobiographer
Correspondent
Diarist
Encyclopédistes
Essayist
Historian
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
Poet Lawyer
Political Scientist
Paris
France
François-Marie Arouet
Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire
Francois Marie Arouet
Dictator of Letters
Benevolent
Occasional
Tyrants
Tyranny
Politics
Government
Best
Tempered
Assassination
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Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were of course exterminated.
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We are going to a new world... and no doubt it is there that everything is for the best for it must be admitted that one might lament a little over the physical and moral happenings of our own world.
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A good action is preferable to an argument.
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The necessity of saying something, the embarrassment produced by the consciousness of having nothing to say, and the desire to exhibit ability, are three things sufficient to render even a great man ridiculous.
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Wine is the divine juice of September.
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What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
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If there were only one religion in England there would be danger of despotism, if there were two, they would cut each other's throats, but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness.
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What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men, and that as a result he's certain he'll go to heaven if he cuts your throat?
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All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
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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.
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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.
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Earth is an insane asylum, to which the other planets deport their lunatics.
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I know of nothing more laughable than a doctor who does not die of old age.
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For seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm.
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And ask each passenger to tell his story, and if there is one of them all who has not cursed his existence many times, and said to himself over and over again that he was the most miserable of men, I give you permission to throw me head-first into the sea.
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Perfect is the enemy of good.
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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.
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