Voltaire Quotes
Writer
The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.
Common sense is not so common.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
All men are born with a nose and five fingers, but no one is born with a knowledge of God.
To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.
Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
We are rarely proud when we are alone.
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
Injustice in the end produces independence.
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
A witty saying proves nothing.
It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.
The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.
We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.
Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.
Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.
Use, do not abuse... neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
Better is the enemy of good.
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
To hold a pen is to be at war.
Fear follows crime and is its punishment.
Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything.
Everything's fine today, that is our illusion.
He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.
Tears are the silent language of grief.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.
Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.
It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
The best is the enemy of the good.
The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
The ear is the avenue to the heart.
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
My life is a struggle.
Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.
The superfluous, a very necessary thing.
It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.
It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.
Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal.
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.
The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.
History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.
I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.
I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.
We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.
There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.
Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.
The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.
Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.
In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.