quotes by Voltaire
(showing 1-50 of 227)
"Let us read and let us dance — two amusements that will never do any harm to the world."
— 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
138 people liked it
"God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere."
— 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
38 people liked it
"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
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
— 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
23 people liked it
"'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)
"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
"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. "
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"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"
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
"'Do you believe,' said Candide, 'that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?'
'Do you believe,' said Martin, 'that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?' "
— Voltaire (Candide)
'Do you believe,' said Martin, 'that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?' "
— Voltaire (Candide)
