During this earlier period of his activity Voltaire seems to have been trying - half unconsciously, perhaps - to discover and to express the fundamental quality of his genius.

The stability and peace which seemed to be so firmly established by the brilliant monarchy of Francis I vanished with the terrible outbreak of the Wars of Religion.

Perhaps of all the creations of man language is the most astonishing.

It is probably always disastrous not to be a poet.

Human beings are too important to be treated as mere symptoms of the past. They have a value which is independent of any temporal process──which is eternal, and must be felt for its own sake.

There is something dark and wintry about the atmosphere of the later Middle Ages.

Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.

Perhaps the best test of a man's intelligence is his capacity for making a summary.

Englishmen have always loved Moliere.

Discretion is not the better part of biography.

The genius of the French language, descended from its single Latin stock, has triumphed most in the contrary direction - in simplicity, in unity, in clarity, and in restraint.

Let your imagination takes you where you want to be.

Well done, my fine fellow out of my womb. What have you gained? Nothing! And oh, what have you lost? Everything!

I could never stand to be a writer. Not a real writer. It's entirely too awful, having thoughts that refuse to become sentences.

I don't know, but I've been told, the streets of hell are paved with gold.

Each goodly thing is hardest to begin.

I'm desperate to have children. I am chomping at the bit. It's a problem. I can't imagine that I will not be a mother.

I stayed close to my family. My family never changed.

I know no diplomacy save that of truth.

If the United States marches into Iraq without the backing of the United Nations, that will be done entirely without the backing of the American people.

Reason elevates our thoughts as high as the stars, and leads us through the vast space of this mighty fabric; yet it comes far short of the real extent of our corporeal being.