Voltaire Quotes

A physician is one who pours drugs of which he knows little into a body of which he knows less.

Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal.

The rude beginnings of every art acquire a greater celebrity than the art in perfection; he who first played the fiddle was looked upon as a demigod.

For seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm.

Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.

It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.

If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.

The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.

There are men who can think no deeper than a fact.

Pleasantry is never good on serious points, because it always regards subjects in that point of view in which it is not the purpose to consider them.

There is a pleasure in not being pleased.

Reading nurtures the soul, and an enlightened friend brings it solace.

There are two things for which animals are to be envied: they know nothing of future evils, or of what people say about them.

Translations increase the faults of a work and spoil its beauties.

Tears are the silent language of grief.

It would be very singular that all nature, all the planets, should obey eternal laws, and that there should be a little animal five feet high, who, in contempt of these laws, could act as he pleased, solely according to his caprice.

As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.

It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.

I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.

Hope should no more be a virtue than fear; we fear and we hope, according to what is promised or threatened us.

The most amazing and effective inventions are not those which do most honour to the human genius.

The Bible. That is what fools have written, what imbeciles commend, what rogues teach and young children are made to learn by heart.

The multiplicity of facts and writings is become so great that every thing must soon be reduced to extracts and dictionaries.

All the citizens of a state cannot be equally powerful, but they may be equally free

The system of Descartes... seemed to give a plausible reason for all those phenomena; and this reason seemed more just, as it is simple and intelligible to all capacities. But in philosophy, a student ought to doubt of the things he fancies he understands too easily, as much as of those he does not understand.

To succeed in chaining the multitude, you must seem to wear the same fetters.

History contains little beyond a list of people who have accommodate themselves with other people's property.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

Writing is the painting of the voice.

He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

We are all guilty of the good we did not do

Ask a toad what is beauty....; he will answer that it is a female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head, a large flat head, a yellow belly and a brown back.

He who cannot shine by thought, seeks to bring himself into notice by a witticism.

In all the disputes which have excited Christians against each other, Rome has invariably decided in favor of that opinion which tended most towards the suppression of the human intellect and the annihilation of the reasoning powers.

Everything I see about me is sowing the seeds of a revolution that is inevitable, though I shall not have the pleasure of seeing it. The lightning is so close at hand that it will strike at the first chance, and then there will be a pretty uproar. The young are fortunate, for they will see fine things.

Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel.

I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.

A witty quote proves nothing.

Your destiny is that of a man, your vows those of a god.

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.

Chess is a game which reflects most honor on human wit.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.

Originality is nothing but judicious plagiarism.

Adultery is an evil only inasmuch as it is a theft; but we do not steal that which is given to us.

God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart to the finest verses chanted by the wicked.

A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do.