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