New exciting quotarama!
I've been feeling a little light and fluffy today so I thought I'd share a little François-Marie Arouet, or Voltaire as most know him. I'm sure most are at least somewhat familiar with him after being forced to flip through Candide in high school, but this was one witty 18th century French deist. Here are a few of my favorites:
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it."
"The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination."
"Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent."
"Anything too stupid to be said is sung."
"To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered."
"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."
"What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature."
"We are rarely proud when we are alone."
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
"The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it."
"The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything."
"The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third."
"Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy: the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth."
"Prejudices are what fools use for reason."
"Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us."
"It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere."
"God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
"The man who says to me, 'Believe as I do, or God will damn you,' will presently say, 'Believe as I do, or I shall assassinate you.'"
"Better is the enemy of good."
"You see many stars at night in the sky but find them not when the sun rises; can you say that there are no stars in the heaven of day? So, O man! because you behold not God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God."
"A witty saying proves nothing."
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it."
"The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination."
"Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent."
"Anything too stupid to be said is sung."
"To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered."
"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."
"What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature."
"We are rarely proud when we are alone."
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
"The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it."
"The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything."
"The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third."
"Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy: the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth."
"Prejudices are what fools use for reason."
"Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us."
"It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere."
"God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
"The man who says to me, 'Believe as I do, or God will damn you,' will presently say, 'Believe as I do, or I shall assassinate you.'"
"Better is the enemy of good."
"You see many stars at night in the sky but find them not when the sun rises; can you say that there are no stars in the heaven of day? So, O man! because you behold not God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God."
"A witty saying proves nothing."