Voltaire

"Speaking of Newton but also commenting more broadly on education and the Enlightenment: "I have seen a professor of mathematics only because he was great in his vocation, buried like a king who had done well by his subjects."

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

"Tears are the silent language of grief."

"“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”"

"I tried to believe in God, but I confess to you that God meant nothing in my life, and that in my secret heart I too felt a void where my childhood faith had been. But probably this feeling belongs only to individuals in transition. The grandchildren of these pessimists will frolic in the freedom of their lives, and have more happiness than poor Christians darkened with fear of Hell."

"It is said that the present is pregnant with the future."

"By what incomprehensible mechanism are our organs held in subjection to sentiment and thought? How is it that a single melancholy idea shall disturb the whole course of the blood; and that the blood should in turn communicate irregularities to the human understanding? What is that unknown fluid which certainly exists and which, quicker and more active than light, flies in less than the twinkling of an eye into all the channels of life,—produces sensations, memory, joy or grief, reason or frenzy,—recalls with horror what we would choose to forget; and renders a thinking animal, either a subject of admiration, or an object of pity and compassion?"

"The Dutch fetishes who converted me tell me every Sunday that the blacks and whites are all children of one father, whom they call Adam. As for me, I do not understand anything of genealogies; but if what these preachers say is true, we are all second cousins; and you must allow that it is impossible to be worse treated by our relations than we are."

"Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law."

"Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts."

"Don't think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money."

"Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly."

"Go into the London Stock Exchange – a more respectable place than many a court – and you will see representatives from all nations gathered together for the utility of men. Here Jew, Mohammedan and Christian deal with each other as though they were all of the same faith, and only apply the word infidel to people who go bankrupt. Here the Presbyterian trusts the Anabaptist and the Anglican accepts a promise from the Quaker. On leaving these peaceful and free assemblies some go to the Synagogue and others for a drink, this one goes to be baptized in a great bath in the name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, that one has his son’s foreskin cut and has some Hebrew words he doesn’t understand mumbled over the child, others go to heir church and await the inspiration of God with their hats on, and everybody is happy."

"Reading nurtures the soul, and an enlightened friend brings it solace."

"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world."

"Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one's country is to wish harm to one's neighbors."

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

"It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part."

"Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day."

"To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid - one must also be polite."