Voltaire

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

We should always have three friends in our lives-one who walks ahead who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we’ve cleared the way.

I don’t do quagmires.

The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.

A man’s personal defects will commonly have with the rest of the world precisely that importance which they have to himself. If he makes light of them, so will other men.

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

It is wonderful when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession.

We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

It’s powerful to have strong men but what does that strength mean?