"There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating --people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing."

Wilde, Oscar on knowledge
10 fans of this quote   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"Carry on any enterprise as if all future success depended on it."

Richelieu, Cardinal De on commitment   

"Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing."

Wilde, Oscar on argument
5 fans of this quote   

"Every theory of love, from Plato down teaches that each individual loves in the other sex what he lacks in himself."

Hall, G. Stanely on women
6 fans of this quote   

"Philosophy does not regard pedigree, she received Plato not as a noble, but she made him one."

Seneca on philosophers and philosophy   

"All thought is naught but a footnote to Plato."

Santayana, George on thoughts and thinking   

"Socrates had a student named Plato, Plato had a student named Aristotle, and Aristotle had a student named Alexander the Great."

Morris, Tom on influence
4 fans of this quote   

"While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work [Plato's Republic], I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this?"

Jefferson, Thomas on philosophers and philosophy   

"To know how to disguise is the knowledge of kings."

Richelieu, Cardinal De on deception   

"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."

Richelieu, Cardinal De on honesty   

"Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of the State."

Richelieu, Cardinal De on secrets   

"Give me six lines written by the most honorable person alive, and I shall find enough in them to condemn them to the gallows."

Richelieu, Cardinal De on judgment and judges   

"The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great."

Voltaire on pride
4 fans of this quote   

"Rest is a good thing, but boredom is its brother."

Voltaire on rest
4 fans of this quote   

"Independence in the end is the fruit of injustice."

Voltaire on evolution   

"Self-love is the instrument of our preservation."

Voltaire on love
3 fans of this quote   

"It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love."

Voltaire on love
8 fans of this quote   

"He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked."

Voltaire on questions
6 fans of this quote   

"Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason at all; and others, to persecute those who do reason."

Voltaire on reason
7 fans of this quote   

"The punishment of criminals should serve a purpose. When a man is hanged he is useless."

Voltaire on punishment
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"Judge a person by their questions, rather than their answers."

Voltaire on questions
14 fans of this quote   

"This poem will never reach its destination. [On Rousseau's Ode To Posterity]"

Voltaire on poetry and poets   

"Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read."

Voltaire on poetry and poets
4 fans of this quote   

"Work is often the father of pleasure."

Voltaire on pleasure
3 fans of this quote   

"The public is a ferocious beast. One must either chain it up or flee from it."

Voltaire on people   

"Perfection is attained by slow degrees; she requires the hand of time."

Voltaire on patience
4 fans of this quote   

"Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung."

Voltaire on song and singing
5 fans of this quote   

"He who doesn't have the spirit of his time, has all its misery."

Voltaire on spirituality
3 fans of this quote   

"One of the chief misfortunes of honest people is that they are cowardly."

Voltaire on war   

"To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered."

Voltaire on courtesy
6 fans of this quote   

"Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road."

Voltaire on conformity
8 fans of this quote   

"Common sense is not so common."

Voltaire on common sense
10 fans of this quote   

"If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new."

Voltaire on adventure
11 fans of this quote   

"You can never correct your work well until you have forgotten it."

Voltaire on writers and writing
3 fans of this quote   

"Work banishes those three great evils: boredom, vice and poverty."

Voltaire on work
8 fans of this quote   

"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."

Voltaire on virginity
7 fans of this quote   

"In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other."

Voltaire on taxes and taxation   

"The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself."

Voltaire on surprises
8 fans of this quote   

"Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy; the mad daughter of a wise mother."

Voltaire on superstition
5 fans of this quote   

"The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it."

Voltaire on character
10 fans of this quote