Voltaire

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.

The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

Nature has always had more force than education.

Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.

The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.

It is natural to die as to be born.

All personal achievement starts in the mind of the individual. Your personal achievement starts in your mind. The first step is to know exactly what your problem, goal or desire is.

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.

I could have become a soldier if I had waited; I knew more about retreating than the man who invented retreating.

I always forgive others. The anger; sadness; frustration; pain, whatever feelings I felt, no matter the hurt; the tears, I always found understanding and reason to forgive them; to not hold onto it; to not resent them. But there is one, who I never seem to be able to give absolution, and that’s myself.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man walking into the little booth with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper. No amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.

Life is largely a matter of expectation.

All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.

You will know (the good from the bad) when you are calm, at peace. Passive.

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.

The foundations of a person are not in matter but in spirit.

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Moms. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.