Micromégas and Other Short Fictions Quotes

“I have been studying for forty years, which is to say forty wasted years; I teach others yet am ignorant of everything; this state of affairs fills my soul with so much humiliation and disgust that my life is intolerable. I was born in Time, I live in Time, and do not know what Time is. I find myself at a point between two eternities, as our wise men say, yet I have no conception of eternity. I am composed of matter, I think, but have never been able to discover what produces thought. I do not know whether or not I think with my head the same way that I hold things with my hands. Not only is the origin of my thought unknown to me, but the origin of my movements is equally hidden: I do not know why I exist. Yet every day people ask me questions on all these issues. I must give answers, yet have nothing worth saying, so I talk a great deal, and am confused and ashamed of myself afterwards for having spoken.”
― Voltaire, Micromégas and Other Short Fictions

“Irregularity is inherent in our very nature; expecting people to be perfectly wise is as crazy as putting wings on dogs or horns on eagles”
― Voltaire, Micromégas and Other Short Fictions

“El vino usado con moderación es medicina para el ánimo y para el cuerpo:”
― Voltaire, Micromegas y otros cuentos filosóficos

“Sabed, le dijo la hermosa dama con quien cenaba, que las que a veces califican de mujeres sin honra casi siempre poseen las virtudes de un hombre honrado;”
― Voltaire, Micromegas y otros cuentos filosóficos