Voltaire Quotes

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.

The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything.

It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.

Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal.

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.

Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.

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.

The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.

Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason at all; and others, to persecute those who do reason.

Religion began when the first scoundrel met the first fool.

It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.

It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.

A witty saying proves nothing.

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us

May God defend me from my friends: I can defend myself from my enemies.

Better is the enemy of good.

He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge.

The best is the enemy of the good.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

If there's life on other planets, then the earth is the Universe's insane asylum.

If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

We are rarely proud when we are alone.

When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.

Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.

Beware of the words "internal security," for they are the eternal cry of the oppressor.

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.

The more a man knows, the less he talks.

The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important aims of philosophy.

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.

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.

If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new.

The greatest consolation in life is to say what one thinks.

All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

It is far better to be silent than merely to increase the quantity of bad books.

The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

Men argue. Nature acts.

History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.

Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.

This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing, and love those who love you.

To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.

It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.

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.

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.

A man loved by a beautiful woman will always get out of trouble.

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.

Only your friends steal your books.

Tears are the silent language of grief.

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

It is as impossible to translate poetry as it is to translate music.

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed from one another. The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the prope

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.

The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.

All men are born with a nose and five fingers, but no one is born with a knowledge of God.

We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.

To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.

I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.

The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him

He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts.

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.

Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.

It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.

God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.

All styles are good except the tiresome kind.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

Antiquity is full of the praises of another antiquity still more remote.

All the citizens of a state cannot be equally powerful, but they may be equally free

Never having been able to succeed in the world, he took his revenge by speaking ill of it.

I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

Once the people begin to reason, all is lost

If you wish to converse with me, define your terms.

As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.

Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

Fear follows crime and is its punishment.

Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls.

What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.

Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were of course exterminated.

Nature has always had more force than education.

Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing

You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

If there were no God, it would have been necessary to invent him.

This is no time to be making new enemies.

I was never ruined but twice: once when I lost a lawsuit, and once when I won one.

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.

It is fancy rather than taste which produces so many new fashions

A long dispute means both parties are wrong.

Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same.

Illusion is the first of the pleasures

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother

The punishment of criminals should be of use; when a man is hanged he is good for nothing.

There is the history of opinions which is hardly anything but a collection of human errors.

Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.

One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say

Everything is for the best in this best of possible worlds.

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.

England has forty-two religions and only two sauces.

Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.

Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.

Originality is nothing but judicious plagiarism.

Providence has given us hope and sleep as a compensation for the many cares of life.

All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.

All men have equal rights to liberty, to their property, and to the protection of the laws

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

A woman can keep one secret - the secret of her age

Repose is a good thing, but boredom is its brother

God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

Prejudice is an opinion without judgment.

Weakness on both sides is, as we know, the motto of all quarrels.

He who thinks himself wise, O heavens! is a great fool.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.

The superfluous, a very necessary thing.

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

Pleasure is the object, duty and the goal of all rational creatures.

If there had been a censorship of the press in Rome we should have had today neither Horace nor Juvenal, nor the philosophical writings of Cicero.

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

It requires ages to destroy a popular opinion.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it

I know of no great men except those who have rendered great service to the human race.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.

Self love is the instrument of our preservation.

The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.

Shun idleness. It is rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.

The fate of a nation has often depended upon the good or bad digestion of a prime minister.

The superstitious man is to the rogue what the slave is to the tyrant.

The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.

True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.

When he who hears does not know what he who speaks means, and when he who speaks does not know what he himself means, that is philosophy.