Voltaire

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

 Voltaire, in  Happiness and Misery

A witty saying proves nothing.

 Voltaire, in  Success and Failure and  Wisdom and Ignorance

All men are equal; it is not birth, but virtue alone, that makes the difference.

 Voltaire, in  Vice and Virtue

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.

 Voltaire, in  Art and Literature and  Wisdom and Ignorance

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

 Voltaire, in  Life and Death

I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.

 Voltaire, in  Law and Politics

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

 Voltaire, in  Altruism and Cynicism

I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.

 Voltaire, in  Law and Politics

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

 Voltaire, in  Vice and Virtue

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

 Voltaire, in  Love and Hate

The superfluous is very necessary.

 Voltaire, in  Vice and Virtue