The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.
It is vain for the coward to flee death follows close behind it is only by defying it that the brave escape.
The best is the enemy of the good.
The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.
Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.
God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
Better is the enemy of good.
One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.
It is forbidden to kill therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
art, government & money
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.
He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.
The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.
I hate women because they always know where things are.
God gave us the gift of life it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.
If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him.
What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors but they are seldom or ever inventors.
He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.
In this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.
He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
All styles are good except the tiresome kind.
History should be written as philosophy.
To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry always gets the best of the argument.
To hold a pen is to be at war.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees it requires the hand of time.
The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him.
We are all full of weakness and errors let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
Fear follows crime and is its punishment.
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
The superfluous, a very necessary thing.
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
Business is the salt of life.
The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.
being alone, men & time
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend provided, of course, he really is dead.
Common sense is not so common.
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.
An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
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.
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.
The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.
The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.
Tears are the silent language of grief.
Society therefore is an ancient as the world.
We are rarely proud when we are alone.