Voltaire Quotes
Love truth, and pardon error.
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Every man is guilty of all the good he didn`t do.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
A witty saying proves nothing.
Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
Regimen is superior to medicine.
God is always on the side of the big battalions.
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
History is a pack of lies we play on the dead.
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
Prejudice is opinion without judgement.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: `O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.` And God granted it.
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.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Anything too stupid to be said is sung.
Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.
There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.
Indolence is sweet, and its consequences bitter.
The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.
All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.
...the safest course is to do nothing against one`s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
The secret of being boring is to say everything.
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
The superfluous, a very necessary thing.
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
I know of no great men except those who have rendered great service to the human race.
The punishment of criminals should be of use; when a man is hanged he is good for nothing
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.
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
Providence has given us hope and sleep as a compensation for the many cares of life
Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and bloody religion that has ever infected the world
Of all religions, Christianity is without a doubt the one that should inspire tolerance most, although, up to now, the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men
All the citizens of a state cannot be equally powerful, but they may be equally free
Common sense is not so common.
Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them
All men have equal rights to liberty, to their property, and to the protection of the laws
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend - provided, of course, that he really is dead.
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too
I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition
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
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
I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.
Tears are the silent language of grief
What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly
Illusion is the first of the pleasures
Once the people begin to reason, all is lost
He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need
God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
To believe in God is impossible - to not believe in Him is absurd
We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongues, at our peril, risk and hazard.
Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well
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.
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy: the mad daughter of a wise mother
Prejudice is the reason of fools
Only your friends steal your books
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers
Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.
Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively
Fear follows crime, and is its punishment
Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
If there were no God, it would have been necessary to invent him.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time
A long dispute means both parties are wrong
The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.
Judge a person by their questions, rather than their answers.
Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense
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.
Common sense is not so common.
What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
