Voltaire Quotes

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

A little evil is often necessary for obtaining a great good.

Pleasure has its time; so too, has wisdom. Make love in thy youth, and in old age attend to thy salvation.

What will the preachers say? .. to teach men not to persecute men: for, while a few sanctimonious humbugs are burning a few fanatics, the earth opens and swallows up all alike.

I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.

The most genuine and efficacious charity is that which greases the paws of the priests; such charity covers a multitude of sins.

Constant happiness is the philosopher's stone of the soul.

Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.

You have no control over the hand that life deals you, but how you play that hand is entirely up to you.

Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.

Only your friends steal your books.

If we would destroy the Christian religion, we must first of all destroy man's belief in the Bible.

Faith consists in believing not what seems true, but what seems false to our understanding.

Most of my life has been one tragedy after another, most of which hasn't happened.

What can we say with certainty?

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.

Every abuse ought to be reformed, unless the reform is more dangerous than the abuse itself.

The pursuit of pleasure must be the goal of every rational person.

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

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.

He who doesn't have the spirit of his time, has all its misery.

Optimism," said Cacambo, "What is that?" "Alas!" replied Candide, "It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.

Earth is an insane asylum, to which the other planets deport their lunatics.

It is as impossible to translate poetry as it is to translate music.

Historians are gossips who tease the dead

The worthy administrators of justice are like a cat set to take care of a cheese, lest it should be gnawed by the mice. One bite of the cat does more damage to the cheese than twenty mice can do.

To make a vow for life is to make oneself a slave.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

Those who think are excessively few; and those few do not set themselves to disturb the world.

History is the study of the world's crime

We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.

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.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

Secret griefs are more cruel than public calamities.

How I like the boldness of the English, how I like the people who say what they think!

Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.

History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.

Whatever you do, trample down abuses, and love those who love you. Different translation: Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing superstition, and love those who love you.

Superstition sets the whole world in flames, but philosophy douses them.

Answer me, you who believe that animals are only machines. Has nature arranged for this animal to have all the machinery of feelings only in order for it not to have any at all?

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.

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

It requires ages to destroy a popular opinion.

Inspiration: A peculiar effect of divine flatulence emitted by the Holy Spirit which hisses into the ears of a few chosen of God.

If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.