Voltaire Quotes (373 Quotes)



    This is the happiest of mortals, for he is above everything he possesses.

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

    ... it would be very singular that all nature, all the planets, should obey eternal laws, and that there should be a little animal five feet high, who, in contempt of these laws, could act as he pleased, solely according to his caprice.

    The Pope is an idol whose hands are tied and whose feet are kissed.


    The atheists are for the most part impudent and misguided scholars who reason badly, and who, not being able to understand the Creation, the origin of evil, and other difficulties, have recourse to the hypothesis of the eternity of things and of inev

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

    Doubt is a not a pleasant mental state, but certainty is a ridiculous one.

    I should stop myself from dying if a good joke or a good idea occurred to me

    Four thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what the soul is.

    For seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm

    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 property of all.

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

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

    I envy animals for two things their ignorance of evil to come, and their ignorance of what is said about them.

    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

    Originality is nothing but judicious plagiarism.

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

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

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

    We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.

    Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.

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

    Men who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create.

    One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

    Your destiny is that of a man, and your vows those of a god.

    A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live

    Change everything except your loves.

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

    It is with books as with men A very small number play a great part, the rest are lost in the multitude.

    Better is the enemy of good.

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

    The way to be a bore is to say everything.

    The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say; but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work.

    Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

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

    Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.

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

    Nature has made us frivolous to console us for our miseries

    No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

    What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking.

    An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

    Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

    Tears are the silent language of grief.

    Fear follows crime and is its punishment.

    To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.

    I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.

    The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.

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

    A witty saying proves nothing.


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