Voltaire > Quotes

“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”
― Voltaire

“Love truth, but pardon error.”
― Voltaire

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
― 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

“Common sense is not so common.”
― Voltaire

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
― Voltaire

“God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.”
― 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

“As long as we believe in absurdities we shall continue to commit atrocities.”
― Voltaire

“God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.”
― Voltaire

“Dare to think for yourself.”
― Voltaire

“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.”
― Voltaire

“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”
― Voltaire

“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”
― Voltaire

“I don’t know where I am going, but I am on my way.”
― Voltaire

“The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.”
― Voltaire

“Ice-cream is exquisite.
What a pity it isn't illegal.”
― Voltaire

“A witty saying proves nothing.”
― 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

“Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.”
― Voltaire

“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
― Voltaire

“I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?”
― Voltaire, Candide: or, Optimism

“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.”
― Voltaire

“Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.”
― Voltaire

“Anything too stupid to be said is sung.”
― Voltaire

“Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.”
― Voltaire

“It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part.”
― Voltaire

“Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”
― Voltaire

“Man is born free, but is everywhere seen bound by chains”
― 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

“Prejudices are what fools use for reason.”
― Voltaire

“Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.”
― Voltaire

“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.”
― Voltaire

“Man is free at the instant he wants to be.”
― Voltaire

“It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.”
― Voltaire

“Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all.”
― 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

“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.”
― Voltaire

“No opinion is worth burning your neighbor for.”
― Voltaire

“The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.”
― Voltaire

“You're a bitter man," said Candide.
That's because I've lived," said Martin.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“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

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well”
― Voltaire

“Liberty of thought is the life of the soul.”
― Voltaire

“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.”
― Voltaire

“It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.”
― Voltaire

“Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.”
― Voltaire

“I should like to know which is worse: to be ravished a hundred times by pirates, and have a buttock cut off, and run the gauntlet of the Bulgarians, 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

“Let us cultivate our garden.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“I loved him as we always love for the first time; with idolatry and wild passion.”
― Voltaire