It is not enough to be exceptionally mad, licentious and fanatical in order to win a great reputation; it is still necessary to arrive on the scene at the right time.
VoltaireIt was decided by the university of Coimbre that the sight of several persons being slowly burned in great ceremony is an infallible secret for preventing earthquakes.
VoltaireI 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.
VoltaireThe abuse of grace is affectation, as the abuse of the sublime is absurdity; all perfection is nearly a fault.
VoltaireStand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.
VoltaireIt is proved...that things cannot be other than they are, for since everything was made for a purpose, it follows that everything is made for the best purpose.
VoltaireSuperstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
VoltaireI have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
VoltaireIt has taken seas of blood to drown the idol of despotism, but the English do not think they bought their laws too dearly.
VoltaireIt 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.
Voltaire