Earth is an insane asylum, to which the other planets deport their lunatics.

History contains little beyond a list of people who have accommodate themselves with other people's property.

A witty saying proves nothing, but saying something pointless gets people's attention.

Liberty, then, about which so many volumes have been written is, when accurately defined, only the power of acting.

All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunegonde, if you hadn't been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn't traveled across America on foot, if you hadn't given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn't lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn't be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios. - That is very well put, said Candide, but we must cultivate our garden.

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.

Custom, law bent my first years to the religion of the happy Muslims. I see it too clearly: the care taken of our childhood forms our feelings, our habits, our belief. By the Ganges I would have been a slave of the false gods, a Christian in Paris, a Muslim here.