The adjective is the enemy of the noun. Variant: The adjective is the enemy of the substantive.
VoltaireA fool is a person who guesses and gets it wrong, a clever man is one who guesses, regardless of time period, and gets it right.
VoltaireWe all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one.
VoltaireMen are in general so tricky, so envious, and so cruel that when we find one who is only weak, we are too happy.
VoltaireWhen a man is in love, jealous, and just whipped by the Inquisition, he is no longer himself.
VoltaireThe human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.
VoltaireLove 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.
VoltaireIf mankind were born tomorrow it would divide into groups; each would scramble to invent their one and only god, and set about butchering each-other.
VoltaireIf one does not reflect, one thinks oneself master of everything; but when one does reflect, one realizes that one is master of nothing.
VoltaireIn this country we find it pays to shoot an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.
VoltaireWhat a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide. "That is because I know what life is," said Martin.
VoltaireThe 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.
VoltaireThe opinion of all lawyers, the unanimous cry of the nation, and the good of the state, are in themselves a law.
VoltaireWhen his highness sends a ship to Egypt, does he trouble his head whether the mice on board are at their ease or not?
VoltaireOpinion is called the queen of the world; it is so, for when reason opposes it, it is condemned to death. It must rise twenty times from its ashes to gradually drive away the usurper.
VoltaireCustom, 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.
VoltaireI have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.
VoltaireIt is reported in the supplement of the council of Nicæan that the fathers, being very perplexed to know which were the cryphal or apocryphal books of the Old and New Testaments, put them all pell-mell on an altar, and the books to be rejected fell to the ground. It is a pity that this eloquent procedure has not survived.
Voltaire