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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
While loving glory so much how can you persist in a plan which will cause you to lose it?
Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
Dictionnaire philosophique (1785)
It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770)
It is the privilege of true genius, and certainly of the genius that opens a new road, to make without punishment great mistakes.
The public is a ferocious beast: one must chain it up or flee from it.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
Where there is friendship, there is our natural soil.
The superfluous, a very necessary thing.
As long as people continue to believe absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.
If God made us in His image we have certainly returned the compliment.
Tears are the silent language of grief.
“I am afraid,” said Memnon, “that our little terraqueous globe here is the madhouse of those hundred thousand millions of worlds of which your lordship does me the honor to speak.”
The first king was a successful soldier;
I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.
When we hear news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
The ear is the avenue to the heart.
Thought depends largely on the stomach. In spite of this, those with the best stomachs are not always the best thinkers.
In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.
Candide (1759)
It is more easy to write on money than to obtain it; and those who gain it, jest much at those who only know how to write about it.
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