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The only reward to be expected from literature is contempt if one fails and hatred if one succeeds.
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
Failing
Succeeds
Literature
Fails
Writing
Contempt
Reward
Rewards
Expected
Hatred
Succeed
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Inspiration: A peculiar effect of divine flatulence emitted by the Holy Spirit which hisses into the ears of a few chosen of God.
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Men argue. Nature acts.
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He who thinks himself wise, O heavens! is a great fool.
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No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
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Custom, law bent my first years to the religion of the happy Muslims. I see it too clearly: the care taken of our childhood forms our feelings, our habits, our belief. By the Ganges I would have been a slave of the false gods, a Christian in Paris, a Muslim here.
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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.
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Men are in general so tricky, so envious, and so cruel that when we find one who is only weak, we are too happy.
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Once your faith persuades you to believe what your intelligence declares absurd, beware, lest you likewise sacrifice your reason in the conduct of your life.
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If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
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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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What can we say with certainty?
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Perfection is attained by slow degrees it requires the hand of time.
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Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.
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If it's too silly to be said, it can always be sung.
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A historian has many duties... the first is not to slander the second is not to bore
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Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.
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It is vain for the coward to flee death follows close behind it is only by defying it that the brave escape.
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The ear is the avenue to the heart.
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Fanaticism, to which men are so much inclined, has always served not only to render them more brutalized but more wicked.
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True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.
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