Virtue debases itself in justifying itself.

The superfluous, a very necessary thing.

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.

Love truth, but pardon error.

He who is merely just is severe.

It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.

If this is the best of all possible worlds ... what are the others like?

Optimism is a mania for saying things are well when one is in hell.

In England it is useful from time to time to kill one admiral in order to encourage the others.

This is the happiest of all men, for he is superior to everything he possesses.

Work keeps us from three great evils, boredom, vice and poverty.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

Common sense is not so commmon.

In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Men use thought only to justify their wrongdoings, and speech only to conceal their thoughts.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.

History is no more than the portrayal of crimes and misfortunes.

Thought depends absolutely on the stomach, but in spite of that, those who have the best stomachs are not the best thinkers.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

Change everything, except your loves.

He who thinks himself wise, O heavens! is a great fool.

Liberty of thought is the life of the soul.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.