Letters on England Quotes

“The necessity of saying something, the perplexity of having nothing to say, and a desire of being witty, are three circumstances which alone are capable of making even the greatest writer ridiculous. ”
― Voltaire, Letters on England

“Human reason is so little able, merely by its own strength, to demonstrate the immortality of the soul, that it was absolutely necessary religion should reveal it to us.  It is of advantage to society in general, that mankind should believe the soul to be immortal; faith commands us to do this; nothing more is required, and the matter is cleared up at once. ”
― Voltaire, Letters on England

“this thought has met with the fate of many other useful projects, of being applauded and neglected.”
― Voltaire, Letters on England

“وتجد بين من يقرأون عشرين يطالعون رواياتٍ في مقابل واحد يدرس الفلسفة، فعدد من يفكرون قليلٌ إلى الغاية ، ولا يعنّ لهؤلاء أن يكدروا صفو العالم.”
― فولتير, رسائل فلسفية

“He was natural and sublime, but had not so much as a single spark of good taste, or knew one rule of the drama. ”
― Voltaire, Letters on England

“Descartes gave sight to the blind. These saw the errors of antiquity and of the sciences. The path he struck out is since become boundless [....] In fathoming this abyss no bottom has been found. We are now to examine what discoveries Sir Isaac Newton has made in it.”
― Voltaire, Letters on England

“The very essence of things is totally changed. You neither are agreed upon the definition of the soul nor on that of matter. Descartes, as I observed in my last, maintains that the soul is the same thing with thought, and Mr. Locke has given a pretty good proof of the contrary. Descartes asserts farther, that extension alone constitutes matter, but Sir Isaac adds solidity to it. How furiously contradictory are these opinions! Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites (Virgil).”
― Voltaire, Letters on England

“That man claims our respect, who commands over the minds of the rest of the world by the force of truth, not those who enslave their fellow creatures; he who is acquainted with the universe, not they who deface it.”
― Voltaire, Letters Concerning the English Nation

“If you have a mind to understand the English comedy, the only way to do this will be for you to go to England, to spend three years in London, to make yourself master of the English tongue, and to frequent the playhouse every night.”
― Voltaire, Letters on England

“...humour when explained is no longer humour.”
― Voltaire, Letters on England

“écrasez l'infâme (Crush the Infamy)”
― Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques

“فضرورة الكلام وورطة عدم وجود ما يقال وشهوة التكيّس أمورٌ ثلاثة يمكنها أن تحوِّل أعظم رجل إلى مهزأة.”
― فولتير, رسائل فلسفية

“Jews use the baptism of John to this day.  Look into ancient authors, and thou wilt find that John only revived this practice; and that it had been used by the Hebrews, long before his time, in like manner as the Mahometans imitated the Ishmaelites in their pilgrimages to Mecca.  Jesus indeed submitted to the baptism of John, as He had suffered Himself to be circumcised; but circumcision and the washing”
― Voltaire, Letters on England

“François Marie Arouet, who called himself Voltaire, was the son of François Arouet of Poitou, who lived in Paris, had given up his office of notary two years before the birth of this his third son, and obtained some years afterwards a treasurer’s office in the Chambre des Comptes.  Voltaire was born in the year 1694.  He lived until within ten or eleven years of the outbreak of the Great French Revolution, and was a chief leader in the movement of thought that preceded the Revolution.”
― Voltaire, Letters on England

“{Francis Bacon] was so great a man that I have forgotten his vices.”
― Voltaire, Letters on England

“How many things here do I not want (Voltaire when in London.”
― Voltaire , Letters on England

“ويذهب الإنجليزي، كرجل حر إلى السماء من الطريق الذي يروقه.”
― فولتير, رسائل فلسفية

“Les sorcières ont cessé d'exister quand nous avons cessé de les brûler.”
― Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques