Top 716 Quotes & Sayings by Voltaire
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a French writer Voltaire.
Last updated on December 23, 2024.
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
My life is a struggle.
To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Injustice in the end produces independence.
The ear is the avenue to the heart.
Clever tyrants are never punished.
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Common sense is not so common.
All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.
The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.
Tears are the silent language of grief.
A witty saying proves nothing.
To hold a pen is to be at war.
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.
Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
The superfluous, a very necessary thing.
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
Better is the enemy of good.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.
The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything.
The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.
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