quotes by Voltaire
(showing 1-50 of 231)
"Let us read and let us dance — two amusements that will never do any harm to the world."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
tags:
double,
ethics,
governments,
humor,
irony,
killing,
law,
mankind,
morality,
murder,
nationalism,
nations,
standards,
war
120 people liked it
"God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"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."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
tags:
books
34 people liked it
"The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"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."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"'I should like to know which is worse: to be raped a hundred times by pirates, and have a buttock cut off, and run the gauntlet of the Bulgars, and be flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, and be dissected, and have to row in a galley -- in short, to undergo all the miseries we have each of us suffered -- or simply to sit here and do nothing?'
'That is a hard question,' said Candide."
— Voltaire (Candide, or Optimism)
'That is a hard question,' said Candide."
— Voltaire (Candide, or Optimism)
"Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe"
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"Now, now my good man, this is no time to be making enemies."
Voltaire on his deathbed in response to a priest asking him that he renounce Satan"
— Voltaire
Voltaire on his deathbed in response to a priest asking him that he renounce Satan"
— Voltaire
tags:
deathbed
17 people liked it
"The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"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."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"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."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"It is far better to be silent than merely to increase the quantity of bad books."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"Man is born free, but is everywhere seen bound by chains"
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. "
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"L'homme est libre au moment qu'il veut l'être."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
tags:
books
8 people liked it
"Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too."
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
Voltaire's profile »
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Arguably the shortest written exchange ever was that between Victor Hugo and his publisher, following the publication of Les Misérables, with Hugo enquiring with a simple "?" about the book's success, and his publisher responding: "!"
A hot contender for the second shortest exchange, however, is that following a bet between two friends who would be able to write the shortest letter in Latin. Thus, the first man wrote: "Eo rus" -- "I am going to the countryside." His friend responded: "I" -- "Go!" ... and had won the bet.
While this story is primarily associated with two Roman senators, it was later co-opted by a minor 18th century playwright for an alleged exchange with one of his country's most famous poets and philosophers.
Who was the 18th century playwright, and who his famous countryman?
a. James MacPherson and Robert Burns
b. Alexis Piron and Voltaire
c. John Vanbrugh and Alexander Pope
d. Karl Philipp Moritz and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
More trivia...
A hot contender for the second shortest exchange, however, is that following a bet between two friends who would be able to write the shortest letter in Latin. Thus, the first man wrote: "Eo rus" -- "I am going to the countryside." His friend responded: "I" -- "Go!" ... and had won the bet.
While this story is primarily associated with two Roman senators, it was later co-opted by a minor 18th century playwright for an alleged exchange with one of his country's most famous poets and philosophers.
Who was the 18th century playwright, and who his famous countryman?
a. James MacPherson and Robert Burns
b. Alexis Piron and Voltaire
c. John Vanbrugh and Alexander Pope
d. Karl Philipp Moritz and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
More trivia...

