It is as impossible to translate poetry as it is to translate music.

What would constitute useful history? That which should teach us our duties and our rights, without appearing to teach them.

It is only through timidity that states are lost.

Fanaticism, to which men are so much inclined, has always served not only to render them more brutalized but more wicked.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

If the bookseller happens to desire a privilege for his merchandise, whether he is selling Rabelais or the Fathers of the Church, the magistrate grants the privilege without answering for the contents of the book. - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire

I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.