284 quotes
We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one.
A company of solemn tyrants is impervious to all seductions.
Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.
Faith consists in believing what reason cannot.
Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)
All styles are good except the boring kind.
Man is free at the instant he wants to be.
Prejudice is an opinion without judgement.
Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)
The king [Frederic] has sent me some of his dirty linen to wash; I will wash yours another time.
"Let us work without reasoning," said Martin; "it is the only way to make life endurable."
Candide (1759)
When the Devil is too busy, and Death's a bit too much, they call on me by name you see, for my special touch.
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy, the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.
Candide (1759)
A witty saying proves nothing.
Le dîner du comte de Boulainvilliers (1767)
This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind:—it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.
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.
The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture for wild beasts to fight in.
The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.
Define your terms, you will permit me again to say, or we shall never understand one another.
Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)
Ancient histories, as one of our wits has said, are but fables that have been agreed upon.