Voltaire Quotes: Voltaire, whose real name is François Marie Arouet, was a French writer and philosopher. He was born on 21 November 1694 in France. Voltaire is a popular author of Reference Books, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Children & Teenagers.
Voltaire was a prolific writer, and his works include plays, poetry, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. Some of his most famous works include the satirical novel “Candide,” the historical novel “Zadig,” and the philosophical essay “Letters Concerning the English Nation.” Voltaire’s ideas and writings were influential in shaping the Enlightenment and had a significant impact on the development of Western liberal thought.
We listed Voltaire Quotes about life, absurdities, love, freedom, truth and more..
Voltaire Quotes
‘”Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”‘
‘”As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.”‘
‘”Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”‘
‘”Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.”‘
‘”The more a man knows, the less he talks.”‘
‘”Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.”‘
‘”We are all guilty of the good we did not do”‘
‘”The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.”‘
‘”The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.”‘
‘”It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”‘
‘”Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason at all; and others, to persecute those who do reason.”‘
‘”A long dispute means both parties are wrong.”‘
‘”It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.”‘
‘”The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”‘
‘”The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.”‘
‘”A yawn may not be polite, but at least it is an honest opinion.”‘
‘”Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said.”‘
‘”The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.”‘
‘”Those who can be made to believe absurdities can be made to commit atrocities.”‘
‘”The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude.”‘
‘”You have no control over the hand that life deals you, but how you play that hand is entirely up to you.”‘
‘”Dont think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.”‘
‘”It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.”‘
‘”Dare to think for yourself.”‘
‘”The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech.”‘
‘”Democracy is just a filler for textbooks! Do you actually believe that public opinion influences the government?”‘
‘”So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.”‘
‘”The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us”‘
‘”The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom.”‘
‘”Common sense is not so common.”‘
‘”If there’s life on other planets, then the earth is the Universe’s insane asylum.”‘
‘”Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.”‘
‘”Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.”‘
‘”Sensual pleasure passes and vanishes, but the friendship between us, the mutual confidence, the delight of the heart, the enchantment of the soul, these things do not perish and can never be destroyed.”‘
‘”When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.”‘
‘”If you want to know who controls you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize.”‘
‘”Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value – zero.”‘
‘”Earth is an insane asylum, to which the other planets deport their lunatics.”‘
‘”The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.”‘,
‘”All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.”‘
‘”It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.”‘
‘”Which is more dangerous: fanaticism or atheism? Fanaticism is certainly a thousand times more deadly; for atheism inspires no bloody passion whereas fanaticism does; atheism is opposed to crime and fanaticism causes crimes to be committed.”‘
‘”Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”‘
‘”Faith consists in believing what reason cannot.”‘
‘”Prejudices are what fools use for reason.”‘
‘”The biggest reward for a thing well done is to have done it.”‘
‘”In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.”‘
‘”Being unable to make people more reasonable, I preferred to be happy away from them”‘
‘”Beware of the words “internal security,” for they are the eternal cry of the oppressor.”‘
‘”Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day.”‘
‘”Give me the patience for the small things of life, courage for the great trials of life. Help me to do my best each day and then go to sleep knowing God is awake.”‘
‘”What is madness? To have erroneous perceptions and to reason correctly from them.”‘
‘”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 we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.”‘
‘”The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.”‘
‘”If one does not reflect, one thinks oneself master of everything; but when one does reflect, one realizes that one is master of nothing.”‘
‘”The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.”‘
‘”God created sex. Priests created marriage.”‘
‘”Writing is the painting of the voice.”‘
‘”Life is thickly sown with thorns. I know no other remedy than to pass rapidly over them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes the greater is their power to harm us.”‘
‘”Liberty of thought is the life of the soul.”‘
‘”To really enjoy pleasures, you must know how to leave them.”‘
‘”To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.”‘
‘”History never repeats itself. Man always does.”‘
‘”Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.”‘
‘”God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.”‘
‘”God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.”‘
‘”Men argue. Nature acts.”‘
‘”Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.”‘
‘”Man is free at the instant he wants to be.”‘
‘”When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living. Tecumseh Appreciation is a wonderful thing; it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”‘
‘”He who thinks himself wise, O heavens! is a great fool.”‘
‘”The more you know, the less sure you are.”‘,
‘”All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.”‘
‘”If mankind were born tomorrow it would divide into groups; each would scramble to invent their one and only god, and set about butchering each-other.”‘
‘”It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.”‘
‘”The more he became truly wise, the more he distrusted everything he knew.”‘
‘”No opinion is worth burning your neighbor for.”‘
‘”A man loved by a beautiful woman will always get out of trouble.”‘
‘”If you have two religions in your land, the two will cut each other’s throats; but if you have thirty religions, they will dwell in peace”‘
‘”I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.”‘
‘”Once your faith persuades you to believe what your intelligence declares absurd, beware, lest you likewise sacrifice your reason in the conduct of your life.”‘
‘”Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.”‘
‘”One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.”‘
‘”No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.”‘
‘”God created woman to tame man.”‘
‘”What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.”‘
‘”Truth is a fruit which should not be plucked until it is ripe.”‘
‘”Prejudices are what rule the vulgar crowd.”‘
‘”Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.”‘
‘”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.”‘
‘”Clever tyrants are never punished.”‘
‘”There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.”‘
‘”There is no such thing as an accident. What we call by that name is the effect of some cause which we do not see.”‘
‘”Never having been able to succeed in the world, he took his revenge by speaking ill of it.”‘
‘”Every one should be his own physician. We ought to assist, and not to force nature. Eat with moderation…Nothing is good for the body but what we can digest. What medicine can procure digestion? Exercise. What will recruit strength? Sleep.”‘
‘”Wherever my travels may lead, paradise is where I am.”‘
‘”One should always aim at being interesting, rather than exact.”‘
‘”We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies – it is the first law of nature.”‘
‘”Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all.”‘
‘”The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him”‘
‘”Language is a very difficult thing to put into words.”‘
‘”It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.”‘
‘”To achieve a goal, a dream, a wish, you must plan it out for success!”‘
‘”Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.”‘
‘”Fanaticism is a monster that pretends to be the child of religion”‘
‘”May God defend me from my friends: I can defend myself from my enemies.”‘
‘”One always begins with the simple, then comes the complex, and by superior enlightenment one often reverts in the end to the simple. Such is the course of human intelligence.”‘
‘”There are two things for which animals are to be envied: they know nothing of future evils, or of what people say about them.”‘
‘”The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.”‘
‘”Theological religion is the source of all imaginable follies and disturbances. It is the parent of fanaticism and civil discord; it is the enemy of mankind.”‘
‘”The greatest consolation in life is to say what one thinks.”‘
‘”Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”‘
‘”Those who think are excessively few; and those few do not set themselves to disturb the world.”‘
‘”Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.”‘
‘”Tears are the silent language of grief.”‘
‘”I know of no great men except those who have rendered great service to the human race.”‘
‘”The wicked can have only accomplices, the voluptuous have companions in debauchery, self-seekers have associates, the politic assemble the factions, the typical idler has connections, princes have courtiers. Only the virtuous have friends.”‘
‘”A physician is one who pours drugs of which he knows little into a body of which he knows less.”‘
‘”True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.”‘
‘”It is the poverty connected with our species which subordinates one man to another. It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.”‘
‘”There can be no happiness without good health”‘
‘”True power and true politeness are above vanity.”‘
‘”Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”‘
‘”It requires ages to destroy a popular opinion.”‘
‘”Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.”‘
‘”Self love is the instrument of our preservation.”‘
‘”Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.”‘
‘”It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.”‘
‘”A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live.”‘
‘”Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.”‘
‘”Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?”‘
‘”To pray to God is to flatter oneself that with words one can alter nature.”‘
‘”If God did not exist, He would have to be invented. But all nature cries aloud that he does exist: that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it.”‘
‘”If God did not exist, he would have to be invented.”‘
‘”Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.”‘
‘”Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because there is nothing to be gained by him.”‘
‘”Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.”‘
‘”The institution of religion exists only to keep mankind in order, and to make men merit the goodness of God by their virtue. Everything in a religion which does not tend towards this goal must be considered foreign or dangerous.”‘
‘”It is not the answers you give, but the questions you ask.”‘
‘”A false science makes atheists, a true science prostrates men before the Deity”‘
‘”To announce truths is an infallible receipt for being persecuted.”‘
‘”To make a vow for life is to make oneself a slave.”‘
‘”Discord is the great ill of mankind; and tolerance is the only remedy for it.”‘
‘”We should be considerate to the living; to the dead we owe only the truth.”‘
‘”The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.”‘
‘”A little evil is often necessary for obtaining a great good.”‘
‘”Pleasure has its time; so too, has wisdom. Make love in thy youth, and in old age attend to thy salvation.”‘
‘”Faith consists in believing not what seems true, but what seems false to our understanding.”‘
‘”Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls.”‘
‘”Twenty-volume folios will never make a revolution. It’s the little pocket pamphlets that are to be feared.”‘
‘”Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference”‘
‘”To hold a pen is to be at war.”‘
‘”Persistence with patience and prayer pays with profits, prosperity and peace of mind.”‘
‘”I read only to please myself, and enjoy only what suits my taste.”‘
‘”Common sense is both more rare and more desirable in leaders than mere intelligence.”‘
‘”It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.”‘
‘”The monster, fanaticism, still exists, and whoever seeks after truth will run the risk of being persecuted.”‘
‘”A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do.”‘
‘”What is not in nature can never be true.”‘
‘”Fame is a heavy burden.”‘
‘”Adultery is an evil only inasmuch as it is a theft; but we do not steal that which is given to us.”‘
‘”Originality is nothing but judicious plagiarism.”‘
‘”God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions.”‘
‘”The most genuine and efficacious charity is that which greases the paws of the priests; such charity covers a multitude of sins.”‘
‘”If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.”‘
‘”Let all the laws be clear, uniform and precise for interpreting laws is almost always to corrupt them.”‘
‘”Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.”‘
‘”I have chosen to be happy because it is goo for my health.”‘
‘”The prudent man does himself good; the virtuous one does it to other men.”‘
‘”Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.”‘
‘”It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.”‘
‘”Indolence is sweet, and its consequences bitter.”‘
‘”A good cook is a certain slow poisoner, if you are not temperate.”‘
‘”History is fables agreed upon.”‘
‘”A good action is preferable to an argument.”‘
‘”I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.”‘
‘”Slavery is also as ancient as war, and war as human nature.”‘
‘”Dogs, monkeys, and parrots are a thousand times less miserable than we are.”‘
‘”Our priests are not what a silly populace supposes; all their learning consists in our credulity.”‘
‘”Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.”‘
‘”God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart to the finest verses chanted by the wicked.”‘
‘”Prejudice is an opinion without judgment.”‘
‘”It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.”‘
‘”Mortals are equal; their mask differs.”‘
‘”Go get yourself crucified and then rise on the third day.”‘
‘”We cannot wish for that we know not.”‘
‘”Shun idleness. It is rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.”‘
‘”In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.”‘
‘”Whosoever does not know how to recognize the faults of great men is incapable of estimating their perfections.”‘
‘”Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.”‘
‘”There are no sects in geometry.”‘
‘”When truth is evident, it is impossible for parties and factions to rise. There never has been a dispute as to whether there is daylight at noon.”‘
‘”Let us confess it: evil strides the world.”‘
‘”Exaggeration, the inseparable companion of greatness.”‘
‘”Another century and there will not be a Bible on earth!”‘
‘”All men are by nature free; you have therefore an undoubted liberty to depart whenever you please, but will have many and great difficulties to encounter in passing the frontiers.”‘
‘”Only your friends steal your books.”‘
‘”Men use thought only to justify their wrong doings, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.”‘
‘”The passions are the winds which fill the sails of the vessel; they sink it at times, but without them it would be impossible to make way.”‘
‘”Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.”‘
‘”There are men who can think no deeper than a fact.”‘
‘”Men will commit atrocities as long as they believe absurdities.”‘
‘”Great men have all been formed either before academies or independent of them.”‘
‘”If you want good laws, burn those you have and make new ones.”‘
‘”It is love; love, the comfort of the human species, the preserver of the universe, the soul of all sentient beings, love, tender love.”‘
‘”What is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason.”‘,
‘”A physician is an unfortunate gentleman who is every day required to perform a miracle; namely to reconcile health with intemperance.”‘
‘”All succeeds with people who are sweet and cheerful.”‘
‘”A good imitation is the most perfect originality”‘
‘”It is not enough to be exceptionally mad, licentious and fanatical in order to win a great reputation; it is still necessary to arrive on the scene at the right time.”‘
‘”Secret griefs are more cruel than public calamities.”‘
‘”Reading nurtures the soul, and an enlightened friend brings it solace.”‘