Voltaire

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing; it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”

“Call them, if you please, bookmakers, not authors; range them rather among second-hand dealers than plagiarists.”

“Every man is the creature of the age in which he lives; very few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.”

“Every style that is not boring is a good one.”

“History is little else than a picture of human crimes and misfortunes.”

“If we believe absurdities we shall commit atrocities.”

“If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new.”

“It requires ages to destroy a popular opinion.”

“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”

“Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.”

“Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thought.”  [Dialogue xiv., Le Chapon et la Poularde, 1763]

“Paradise is where I am.”

“Prejudice is an opinion without judgment.”

“Prejudice is the reason of fools.”

“The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”

“The best way to become boring is to say everything.”

“The multitude of books is making us ignorant.”

“The secret of being tiresome is to tell everything.”

“There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.”  [Letter to Cardinal de Bernis, April 23, 1761]

“Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.”

“To believe in God is impossible--not to believe in Him is absurd.”

“When the speaker and he to whom he speaks do not understand, that is metaphysics.”

“Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.”