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In this country [England] it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, to encourage the others. The reference is to Admiral John Byng, who was executed in 1757 for failing to prevent the French from taking Minorca.
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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Paris
France
François-Marie Arouet
Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire
Francois Marie Arouet
Dictator of Letters
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Good
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The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.
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If one does not reflect, one thinks oneself master of everything but when one does reflect, one realizes that one is master of nothing.
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Often the prudent, far from making their destinies, succumb to them. -Francois
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Adultery is an evil only inasmuch as it is a theft but we do not steal that which is given to us.
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If it's too silly to be said, it can always be sung.
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History is a pack of lies we play on the dead.
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Secret griefs are more cruel than public calamities.
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Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
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