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So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one's fatherland is to wish evil to one's neighbors. The citizen of the universe would be the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer.
Voltaire
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Voltaire
Age: 84 †
Born: 1694
Born: February 20
Died: 1778
Died: May 30
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Autobiographer
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Encyclopédistes
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Philosopher
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Paris
France
François-Marie Arouet
Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire
Francois Marie Arouet
Dictator of Letters
Universe
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Fatherland
Wish
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Poorer
Human
Greatness
Richer
Humans
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Nationalism
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Conditions
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Never
Either
Smaller
Would
Greater
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Men
Evil
Citizen
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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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We are intelligent beings: intelligent beings cannot have been formed by a crude, blind, insensible being: there is certainly some difference between the ideas of Newton and the dung of a mule. Newton's intelligence, therefore, came from another intelligence
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What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking.
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History is fables agreed upon.
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Alas...I too have known love, that ruler of hearts, that soul of our soul: it's never brought me anything except one kiss and twenty kicks in the rump. How could such a beautiful cause produce such an abominable effect on you?
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God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart to the finest verses chanted by the wicked.
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If God did not exist, He would have to be invented. But all nature cries aloud that he does exist: that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it.
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The tyranny of the many would be when one body takes over the rights of others, and then exercises its power to change the laws in its favor.
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Men, generally going with the stream, seldom judge for themselves, and purity of taste is almost as rare as talent.
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The mirror is a worthless invention. The only way to truly see yourself is in the reflection of someone else's eyes.
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No, nothing has the power to part me from you our love is based upon virtue, and will last as long as our lives.
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Those who think are excessively few and those few do not set themselves to disturb the world.
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History is the study of the world's crime
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It would be very singular that all nature, all the planets, should obey eternal laws, and that there should be a little animal five feet high, who, in contempt of these laws, could act as he pleased, solely according to his caprice.
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Better is the enemy of good.
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Those who believe absurdities will commit atrocities.
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The spirit of property doubles a man's strength.
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An admiral should be put to death now and then to encourage the others.
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the women are never at a loss, God provides for them, let us run.
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War is the greatest of all crimes and yet there is no aggressor who does not color his crime with the pretext of justice.
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