Words matter. These are the best Voltaire Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.
In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.
The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.
I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.
Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.
Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
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.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
Common sense is not so common.
Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.
God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.
Better is the enemy of good.
All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.
The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say; but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
When men do not have healthy notions of the Divinity, false ideas supplant them, just as in bad times one uses counterfeit money when there is no good money.
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
Such is the feebleness of humanity, such is its perversity, that doubtless it is better for it to be subject to all possible superstitions, as long as they are not murderous, than to live without religion.
It is not known precisely where angels dwell whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God’s pleasure that we should be informed of their abode.
Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same.
It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies – it is the first law of nature.
All styles are good except the tiresome kind.
The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.
What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
To hold a pen is to be at war.
I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
Tears are the silent language of grief.
Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking.
We cannot wish for that we know not.
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
The ear is the avenue to the heart.
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.
Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.
The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
Clever tyrants are never punished.
To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
