“The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.”
Voltaire · Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme, 1738
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Wisdom Quotes
WisdomTruth
649 quotes on wisdom and truth — from the classics to the everyday.
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”
Voltaire
“Common sense is not so common.”
Voltaire · Philosophical Dictionary, 1764
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
Voltaire · Questions sur les miracles, 1765
“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”
Voltaire · The Age of Louis XIV, 1752
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.”
Voltaire · Letter to Frederick the Great, 1767
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
Voltaire
“We must cultivate our garden.”
Voltaire · Candide, 1759
“Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs.”
Leo Tolstoy
“A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.”
Leo Tolstoy · The First Step, 1892
“Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.”
Leo Tolstoy · A Calendar of Wisdom, 1908
“Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal aims of humanity.”
Leo Tolstoy · War and Peace, 1869
“If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.”
Leo Tolstoy · Anna Karenina, 1878
“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”
Leo Tolstoy · War and Peace, 1869
“There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness, and truth.”
Leo Tolstoy · War and Peace, 1869
“I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means — except by getting off his back.”
Leo Tolstoy · What Then Must We Do?, 1886
“All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do.”
Leo Tolstoy · The Kingdom of God Is Within You, 1894
