God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselv... - Voltaire

"We never live; we are always in the expectation of living."

"S'il n'existait pas Dieu il faudrait l'inventer."(If God did not exist he would have to be invented.)"

"It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge."

"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it."(Letter to Étienne Noël Damilaville, May 16, 1767)"

"Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day."