Ancient Agora - Athens, Greece - 20071. "All kinds are good except the kind that bores you."
2. "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds."
3. "All the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books."
4. "A long dispute means that both parties are wrong"
5. "A multitude of laws in a country is like a great number of physicians, a sign of weakness and malady."
6. “Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.”
7. “Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel.”
8. “Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
9. "As long as people believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities."
10. "A witty saying proves nothing."
11. “Chance is a word devoid of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.”
12. “Common sense is not so common”
13. "Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing."
14. "Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
15. "Do well and you will have no need for ancestors."
16. ”Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.”
17. “England has forty-two religions and only two sauces.”
18. "Every man is the creature of the age in which he lives; very few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time."
19. “Four thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what the soul is.”
20. “He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.”
21. ”He who has heard the same thing told by 12,000 eye-witnesses has only 12,000 probabilities, which are equal to one strong probability, which is far from certain.”
22. “He who is only wise lives a sad life.“
23. “I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.”
24. ”I detest your ideas but I am ready to die for your right to express them.”
25. "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
26. “If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.”
27. "If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent Him. But all nature cries aloud that He does exist; that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it."
28. “If this world were what it seems it should be, it is clear that it would be impossible for one man to enslave another.”
29. “If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new.”
30. “If you are attacked as regards your style, never reply; it is for your work alone to make answer.”
31. ”I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.”
32. “I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.”
33. “In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.”
34. "In my life, I have prayed but one prayer: oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it."
35. ”I place good books among the absolutely essential possessions.
36. ”I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.”
37. ”Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?”
38. "It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one."
39. “It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”
40. "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
41. “It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
42. “It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.”
43. ”It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.”
44. "It is not known precisely where angels dwell -- whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we should be informed of their abode."
45. "It shows a curious narrowness of mind to love one science, only to hate all the others."
46. "God created sex. Priests created marriage."
47. “God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.”
48. “He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.”
49. "History is fables agreed upon."
50. “History should be written as philosophy.”
51. “I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to men that the inventors of syllogisms. He who imagined a ship towers considerably above him who imagined innate ideas.”
52. "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
53. "If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new."
54. "I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms."
55. "I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it."
56. “It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge.”
57. “It is far better to be silent than merely to increase the quantity of bad books.”
58. "It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere."
59. “It is the characteristic of the most stringent censorships that they give credibility to the opinions they attack.”
60. "Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers."
61. “Let us read, and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.”
62. “Let us work without theorizing, 'Tis the only way to make life endurable.”
63. ”Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.”
64. “Life resembles the banquet of Damocles; the sword is ever suspended.”
65. “Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same.”
66. "Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination."
67. “Love truth, but pardon error."
68. ”Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all.”
69. "Men argue, nature acts."
70. “Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.”
71. "No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking."
72. “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
73. “Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.”
74. ”One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything's fine today, that is our illusion.”
75. "One great use of words is to hide our thoughts."
76. “Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.”
77. “Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed from one another. The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.”
78. "Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road."
79. “Paradise is where I am.”
80. "People have declaimed against luxury for 2000 years, in verse and in prose, and people have always delighted in it."
81. "Philosopher: A lover of wisdom, which is to say, Truth".
82. “Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls.”
83. "Really, to stop criticism, they say, one must die."
84. ”So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.”
85. ”Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy; the mad daughter of a wise mother.”
86. “The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while Nature cures the disease.”
87. ”The best is the enemy of the good.”
88. ”The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.”
89. "The great consolation in life is to say what one thinks".
90. “The burning of an author's books, imprisonment for opinion's sake, has always been the tribute that an ignorant age pays to the genius of its time.”
91. "The great consolation in life is to say what one thinks."
92. “The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.”
93. ”The multitude of books is making us ignorant.”
94. “The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.”
95. "There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times."
96. "There has never been a perfect government, because men have passions; and if they did not have passions, there would be no need for government."
97. “There is no complete language, no language which can express all our ideas and all our sensations; their shades are too numerous, too imperceptible. Nobody can make known the precise degree of sensation he experiences. One is obliged, for example, to designate by the general names of love and hate a thousand loves and a thousand hates all different from each other; it is the same with our pleasures and our pains. Thus all languages are, like us, imperfect.”
98. "The secret of being a bore is to tell everything."
99. "The superfluous is very necessary."
100. “The way to become boring is to say everything.”
101. "The wicked can have only accomplices, the voluptuous have companions in debauchery, self-seekers have associates, the politic assemble the factions, the typical idler has connections, princes have courtiers. Only the virtuous have friends."
102. “The world embarrasses me, and I cannot think this watch exists and has no Watchmaker.”
103. “They use thought only to justify their injustices, and speech only to disguise their thoughts.”
104. ”Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.”
105. “To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.”
106. "To hold a pen is to be at war."
107. "To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered."
108. "To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth."
109. “Truth is a fruit which should not be plucked until it is ripe.”
110. “Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.”
111. ”Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.”
112. “Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.”
113. “Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.”
114. "Weakness on both sides is, the motto of all quarrels."
115. “We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies it is the first law of nature.”
116. “We must cultivate our own garden. . . . When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.”
117. “We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.”
118. ”What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.”
119. "Whatever you do, stamp out superstition, and love those who love you."
120. “When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.”
121. “When he who hears does not know what he who speaks means, and when he who speaks does not know what he himself means, that is philosophy.”
122. “When the speaker and he to whom he is speaks do not understand, that is metaphysics.”
123. “When truth is evident, it is impossible for parties and factions to rise. There never has been a dispute as to whether there is daylight at noon.”
124. “When we hear news we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.”
125. ”Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.”
126. “Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.”
127. “Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.”
128. “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time - but most of the time they will make fools of themselves.”
