Top 716 Quotes & Sayings by Voltaire - Page 10

One of the chief misfortunes of honest people is that they are cowardly.

It does not require great art, or magnificently trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should tolerate each other. I, however, am going further: I say that we should regard all men as our brothers. What? The Turk my brother? The Chinaman my brother? The Jew? The Siam? Yes, without doubt; are we not all children of the same father and creatures of the same God?

Happiness is a good that nature sells us.

The Jewish nation dares to display an irreconcilable hatred toward all nations, and revolts against all masters; always superstitious, always greedy for the well-being enjoyed by others, always barbarous - cringing in misfortune and insolent in prosperity.

Providence has given us hope and sleep as a compensation for the many cares of life.

The fate of a nation has often depended upon the good or bad digestion of a prime minister.

What would constitute useful history? That which should teach us our duties and our rights, without appearing to teach them.

If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?

It is with books as with the fires of our grates, everybody borrows a light from his neighbor to kindle his own, which in turn is communicated to others, and each partakes of all.

Changing a habit is hard work. But it's harder to find work that would be more fulfilling

Quand celui à qui l'on parle ne comprend pas et celui qui parle ne se comprend pas, c'est de la métaphysique When he to whom a person speaks does not understand, and he who speaks does not understand himself, that is metaphysics.

It is far better to be silent than merely to increase the quantity of bad books.

Virtue between men is a commerce of good actions: he who has no part in this commerce must not be reckoned.

Everything can be borne except contempt.

I serve your Beaune to my friends, but your Volnay I keep for myself.

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity.

There are barbarians who seize this dog, who so prodigiously surpasses man in friendship, and nail him down to a table, and dissect him alive to show you the mezaraic veins... Answer me, Machinist, has Nature really arranged all the springs of feeling in this animal to the end that he might not feel? Has he nerves that he may be incapable of suffering?

You can never correct your work well until you have forgotten it.

But nothing is more estimable than a physician who, having studied nature from his youth, knows the properties of the human body, the diseases which assail it, the remedies which will benefit it, exercises his art with caution, and pays equal attention to the rich and the poor.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him; let us worship God through Jesus if we must - if ignorance has so far prevailed that this name can still be spoken in all seriousness without being taken as a synonym for rapine and carnage. Every sensible man, every honourable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror.

Martin in particular concluded that man was born to live either in the convulsions of misery, or in the lethargy of boredom.

History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up.

The effervescence of this fresh wine reveals the true brilliance of the French people.

What a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide. "That is because I know what life is," said Martin.

The first clergyman was the first rascal who met the first fool.

We are astonished at thought, but sensation is equally wonderful.

But there must be some pleasure in condemning everything--in perceiving faults where others think they see beauties.' 'You mean there is pleasure in having no pleasure.

Life is bristling with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one's garden.

Truth is a fruit that can only be picked when it is very ripe.

I have seen men incapable of the sciences, but never any incapable of virtue.

All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunegonde, if you hadn't been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn't traveled across America on foot, if you hadn't given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn't lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn't be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios. - That is very well put, said Candide, but we must cultivate our garden.

To caress the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten away our heart.

We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.

I envy animals for two things - their ignorance of evil to come, and their ignorance of what is said about them.

All the ancient histories, as one of our wits say, are just fables that have been agreed upon

All is but illusion and disaster.

A witty quote proves nothing.

Whenever an important event, a revolution, or a calamity turns to the profit of the church, such is always signalised as the Finger of God.

Of all religions, Christianity is without a doubt the one that should inspire tolerance most

If there were only one religion in England there would be danger of despotism, if there were two, they would cut each other's throats, but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness.

God created women only to tame men.

If God did not exist, he would have to be invented.

Theology is to religion what poisons are to food.

This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

Love is a cloth which imagination embroiders.

Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.

Man is not born wicked; he becomes so, as he becomes sick.

Observe that noses were made to wear spectacles; and so we have spectacles. Legs were visibly instituted to be breeched, and we have breeches. Stones were formed to be quarried and to build castles; and My Lord has a very noble castle; the greatest Baron in the province should have the best house; and as pigs were made to be eaten, we eat pork all year round; consequently, those who have asserted all is well talk nonsense; they ought to have said that all is for the best.

Nothing could be smarter, more splendid, more brilliant, better drawn up than two armies. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, cannons, formed a harmony such as never been heard in hell.

It would be easier to subjugate the entire universe through force than the minds of a single village.

And ask each passenger to tell his story, and if there is one of them all who has not cursed his existence many times, and said to himself over and over again that he was the most miserable of men, I give you permission to throw me head-first into the sea.

Independence in the end is the fruit of injustice.

In this country we find it pays to shoot an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.

The superstitious man is to the rogue what the slave is to the tyrant.

She blushed and so did he. She greeted him in a faltering voice, and he spoke to her without knowing what he was saying.

Everything I see about me is sowing the seeds of a revolution that is inevitable, though I shall not have the pleasure of seeing it. The lightning is so close at hand that it will strike at the first chance, and then there will be a pretty uproar. The young are fortunate, for they will see fine things.

Your destiny is that of a man, your vows those of a god.

Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror.

Happiness is not the portion of man.

Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing, and love those who love you.