Memorable Quotes and quotations from VoltaireVoltaire French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)Voltaire - - Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one. Voltaire - - He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise. Voltaire - - Regimen is superior to medicine. Voltaire - - It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. Voltaire - - A witty saying proves nothing. Voltaire - - We never live; we are always in the expectation of living. Voltaire - The Portable Voltaire - In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one part of the citizens to give to the other. Voltaire - - There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable. Voltaire - - Canada: A few acres of snow. Voltaire - - The public is a ferocious beast -- one must either chain it up or flee from it. Voltaire - - Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly. Voltaire - - It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue. Voltaire - - The multitude of books is making us ignorant. Voltaire - - Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly. Voltaire - - Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. Voltaire - - I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to men that the inventors of syllogisms. He who imagined a ship towers considerably above him who imagined innate ideas. Voltaire - - A witty saying proves nothing. Voltaire - - I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it. Voltaire - - Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too. Voltaire - Letter to Frederick, 1767 - As long as there are fools and rascals, there will be religions. Voltaire - - Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read. Voltaire - - A witty saying proves nothing. Voltaire - - Common sense is not so common. Voltaire - - "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. Voltaire - - If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated. Voltaire - - 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. Voltaire - Candide, 1759 - Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need. Voltaire - - God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. Voltaire - - To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it. Voltaire - - Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference. Voltaire - - Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung. Voltaire - - Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers. Voltaire - - A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live. Voltaire - - Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. Voltaire - - Love truth, and pardon error. Voltaire - - This poem will never reach its destination. Voltaire - - Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes. Voltaire - Zadig - It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one. Voltaire - - The art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of the citizens to give to the other. Voltaire - - England has forty-two religions and only two sauces. Voltaire - - There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics... We repeat, there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer. Voltaire - - It is far better to be silent than merely to increase the quantity of bad books. Voltaire - - 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. Voltaire - - Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy. Voltaire - when asked on his deathbed to forswear Satan. - This is no time to make new enemies. Voltaire - - Anything too stupid to be said is sung. Voltaire - - It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue. Voltaire - - God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. Voltaire - - Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were of course exterminated. Voltaire - - Prejudice is opinion without judgement. Voltaire - - The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. Voltaire - - Once the people begin to reason, all is lost. Voltaire - - The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman nor an Empire. Voltaire - - The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. Voltaire - - A witty saying proves nothing. Voltaire - - It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. Voltaire - Essay on Tolerance - Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too. Voltaire - - A witty saying proves nothing. Voltaire - - To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. Voltaire - - The superfluous is very necessary. Voltaire - - To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid; you must also be well-mannered. Voltaire - - Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes. Voltaire - Candide - All is for the best in the best of all possible ways. Voltaire - on his deathbed in response to a priest asking that he renounce Satan - Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies. Voltaire - - It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. Voltaire - - God created sex. Priests created marriage. Voltaire - - All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God. Voltaire - - Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Voltaire - - I was never ruined but twice: once when I lost a lawsuit, and once when I won one. Voltaire - - Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. Voltaire - - When it is a question of money, everyone is of the same religion. Voltaire - Candide - [Optimism is] the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst. Voltaire - - The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors. Voltaire - - 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 Voltaire - - 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. Voltaire - - To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. Voltaire - - 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. Voltaire - - I have lost the half of myself ? a soul for which mine was made. Voltaire - - God is always on the side of the big battalions. Voltaire - Letter (1769) - The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him. Voltaire - - If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Voltaire - - Do well and you will have no need for ancestors. Voltaire - - Anything too stupid to be said is sung. Voltaire - - When its a question of money, everybody is of the same religion. Voltaire - - I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it. Voltaire - - May God defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies. Voltaire - - God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere. Voltaire - - The secret of being boring is to say everything. Voltaire - - When it is a question of money, everyone is of the same religion. Voltaire - (Attributed); originated in "The Friends of Voltaire", 1906, by S. G. Tallentyre (Evelyn Beatrice Hall) - I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Voltaire - - I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it. Voltaire - - Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination. Voltaire - - True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others. |
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