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» Quotes by Voltaire »
'That is indisputable,' was the answer, 'but in this country it is a g...
A company of tyrants is inaccessible to all seductions.
A witty saying proves nothing.
All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with...
All styles are good except the tiresome kind.
All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
Anything too stupid to be said is sung.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in other...
As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit ...
Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.
Better is the enemy of good.
Business is the salt of life.
But nothing is more estimable than a physician who, having studied nat...
By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.
Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.
Clever tyrants are never punished.
Common sense is not so common.
Intelligence
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, ho...
Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the...
Everything is for the best in this best of possible worlds.
Everything's fine today, that is our illusion.
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to b...
Fear follows crime and is its punishment.
For take thy balance if thou be so wise And weigh the wind that under ...
Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to...
Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.
God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gif...
God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.
He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.
He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of c...
He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.
He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.
He who thinks himself wise, O heavens! is a great fool.
History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.
How inexpressible is the meanness of being a hypocrite! how horrible i...
How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child's board. It is lik...
I advice you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying you...
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death...
I hate women because they always know where things are.
I have always made one prayer to God, a very short one. Here it is: "M...
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord mak...
I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none w...
I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the d...
I Thy God am the Light and the Mind which were before substance was di...
Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal.
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
If the bookseller happens to desire a privilege for his merchandise, w...
If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him.
If we do not find anything pleasant, at least we shall find something ...
In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as ...
In the country of Westphalia, in the castle of the most noble Baron of...
In this country [England] it is thought well to kill an admiral from t...
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortun...
Injustice in the end produces independence.
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity wou...
It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent o...
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established author...
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless t...
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy ...
Patriotism
It is new fancy rathert than taste which produces so many new fashions...
It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must ...
It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that...
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.
It is today, my dear, that I take a perilous leap.
It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is o...
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any h...
Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to p...
Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which co...
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
Love
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure...
Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ spee...
Men use thought only to justify their wrong doings, and employ speech ...
My life is a struggle.
Nature has always had more force than education.
Neither holy, nor Roman, nor Empire.
Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry always ...
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason an...
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not...
Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer w...
Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or e...
Originality is nothing by judicious imitation. The most original write...
Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.
Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
Prejudice, friend, govern the vulgar crowd.
Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about t...
Slavery is also as ancient as war, and was as human nature.
Society therefore is an ancient as the world.
Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that a...
Tears are the silent language of grief.
The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, ...
The ancients recommended us to sacrifice to the Graces, but Milton sac...
The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it pos...
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures...
The best is the enemy of the good.
The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.
The ear is the avenue to the heart.
The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on wh...
The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, w...
The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.
The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great
The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our ne...
The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be sai...
The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.
The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and...
The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to ...
The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from...
The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this...
The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything.
The secret of being tiresome is in telling everything.
The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.
The superfluous, a very necessary thing.
The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not...
The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists an...
There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the...
Thou sleepest, Brutus, and yet Rome is in chains.
Though one sits in meditation in a particular place, the Self in him c...
To be at peace in crime! ah, who can thus flatter himself.
To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
To hold a pen is to be at war.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also b...
To them it seemed that the gifts of an enemy were to be dreaded.
Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws...
Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happ...
Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warri...
Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each ot...
We are rarely proud when we are alone.
We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.
We cannot wish for that we know not.
We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at o...
We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be...
Weakness on both sides is, as we know, the motto of all quarrels.
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all forme...
What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a ...
Age
What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot ...
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks hims...
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
You see many stars at night in the sky but find them not when the sun ...
Your destiny is that of a man, and your vows those of a god.
Your Majesty may think me an impatient sick man, and that the Turks ar...