Voltaire/works/historical

Famous quotes containing the words voltaire, works and/or historical:

    Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. From that divine tear and from that human smile is derived the grace of present civilization.
    Victor Hugo (1802–1885)

    It’s an old trick now, God knows, but it works every time. At the very moment women start to expand their place in the world, scientific studies deliver compelling reasons for them to stay home.
    Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)

    It is hard to believe that England is so near as from your letters it appears; and that this identical piece of paper has lately come all the way from there hither, begrimed with the English dust which made you hesitate to use it; from England, which is only historical fairyland to me, to America, which I have put my spade into, and about which there is no doubt.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)