The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.
- Original: Le secret d'ennuyer est celui de tout dire.
- Source: "Sixième discours: sur la nature de l'homme," Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)
To hold a pen is to be at war.
- Original: Qui plume a, guerre a.
- Source: letter to Jeanne-Grâce Bosc du Bouchet, comtesse d'Argental (October 4, 1748)
- This remark also appears in a letter to Marie-Louise Denis (May 22, 1752): To hold a pen is to be at war. This world is one vast temple consecrated to discord [Qui plume a, guerre a. Ce monde est un vaste temple dédié à la discorde].
Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.
- Original: Le travail éloigne de nous trois grands maux: l'ennui, le vice et le besoin.
- Source: Candide (1759), ch. XXX
Dante will always be admired, because no one ever read him.
clipped from: en.wikiquote.org