Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
Voltaire

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
Voltaire

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.
Voltaire

Society therefore is an ancient as the world.
Voltaire

Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.
Voltaire

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
Voltaire

Tears are the silent language of grief.
Voltaire

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.
Voltaire

The ancients recommended us to sacrifice to the Graces, but Milton sacrificed to the Devil.
Voltaire

The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third.
Voltaire

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
Voltaire

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
Voltaire

The best is the enemy of the good.
Voltaire

The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.
Voltaire

The ear is the avenue to the heart.
Voltaire

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.
Voltaire

The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say; but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work.
Voltaire

The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.
Voltaire

The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.
Voltaire

The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
Voltaire