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Voltaire Quotes
1694–1778 France
François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), most famous under his pen name Voltaire, was a French writer, deist and philosopher. Voltaire established himself as one of the leading writers of the enlightenment.
France Academics Essayists Historians Memoirists Also known as: François Marie Arouet de Voltaire, François-Marie Arouet, Philosophical Dictionary
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284 quotes
Injustice in the end produces independence.
I always made one prayer to God, a very short one. Here it is: "O Lord, make our enemies quite ridiculous!" God granted it.
The surest way of wearying your readers is to say everything that can be said on the subject.
All our ancient history, as one of our wits remarked, is no more than accepted fiction.
Jeannot et Colin (1764)
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.
Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.
All styles are good except the tiresome kind.
Let the punishments of criminals be useful. A hanged man is good for nothing; a man condemned to public works still serves the country, and is a living lesson.
Dictionnaire philosophique (1785)
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)
Doctrine of reincarnation is neither absurd nor useless. It is not more surprising to be born twice than once.
How inexpressible is the meanness of being a hypocrite! how horrible is it to be a mischievous and malignant hypocrite.
Morality is everywhere the same for all men, therefore it comes from God; sects differ, therefore they are the work of men.
Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
I have always made one prayer to God, a very short one. Here it is: "My God, make our enemies very ridiculous!" God has granted it to me.
Books, like conversation, rarely give us any precise ideas: nothing is so common as to read and converse unprofitably. We must here repeat what Locke has so strongly urged—Define your terms.
Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)
You [Pindar] who possessed the talent of speaking much without saying anything.
The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.
If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?
Candide (1759)
A company of tyrants is inaccessible to all seductions.
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