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One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say.
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
Speaks
Speak
Nothing
Always
Badly
More quotes by Voltaire
Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day.
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You see, Mademoiselle, I have experience, I know the world. To pass the time, why don't you ask every passenger to tell you his life's story? And if there is a single one among them who has never cursed his life, who has not often told himself that he was the unhappiest of men, then you may throw me overboard, headfirst!
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It is reported in the supplement of the council of Nicæan that the fathers, being very perplexed to know which were the cryphal or apocryphal books of the Old and New Testaments, put them all pell-mell on an altar, and the books to be rejected fell to the ground. It is a pity that this eloquent procedure has not survived.
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If God did not exist, he would have to be invented.
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Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors but they are seldom or ever inventors.
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What a pessimist you are! exclaimed Candide. That is because I know what life is, said Martin.
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The question of good and evil remains in irremediable chaos for those who seek to fathom it in reality. It is mere mental sport to the disputants, who are captives that play with their chains.
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The way to be a bore is to say everything.
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All men are by nature free you have therefore an undoubted liberty to depart whenever you please, but will have many and great difficulties to encounter in passing the frontiers.
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The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
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Often the prudent, far from making their destinies, succumb to them. -Francois
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He is lifeless that is faultless.
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The more he became truly wise, the more he distrusted everything he knew.
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Now is not the time for making new enemies.
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Everything can be borne except contempt.
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Earth is an insane asylum, to which the other planets deport their lunatics.
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Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.
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True power and true politeness are above vanity.
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The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.
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What is madness? To have erroneous perceptions and to reason correctly from them.
Voltaire
