“I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?”
More from Voltaire
“To hold a pen is to be at war.”
“Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls.”
“Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable.…”
“Fools admire everything in an author of reputation. For my part, I read only to please…”