Voltaire

He who is merely just is severe.

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

In this country [England] it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, to encourage the others. The reference is to Admiral John Byng, who was executed in 1757 for failing to prevent the French from taking Minorca.

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.

I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.

Optimism, said Candide, is a mania for maintaining all that is well when things are going badly.

Common sense is not so common.

We must cultivate our garden.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one.

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