Voltaire Quotes

Faith is believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

Fear follows crime and is its punishment.

It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.

He who thinks himself wise O heavens! is a great fool.

Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.

If there were no God it would be necessary to invent him.

Pleasure is the object duty and the goal of all rational creatures.

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

If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.

If God made us in his image we have certainly returned the compliment.

The most beautiful of all emblems is that of God whom Timaeus of Locris describes under the image of "A circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."

The fate of a nation has often depended on the good or bad digestion of a prime minister.

History is just the portrayal of crimes and misfortunes.

A good imitation is the most perfect originality.

We never live but we are always in the expectation of living.

Luck is a word devoid of sense nothing can exist without a cause.

Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little to cure diseases of which they know less in human beings of whom they know nothing.

When it is a question of money everybody is of the same religion.

Men argue nature acts.

I never was ruined but twice - once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one.

When we hear news we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.

I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day and of doing good once in a year.

Fear could never make a virtue.

The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important objects of philosophy.

We offer up prayers to God only because we have made Him after our own image. We treat Him like a Pasha or a Sultan who is capable of being exasperated and appeased.

The infinitely little have pride infinitely great.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is.

The punishment of criminals should be of use when a man is hanged he is good for nothing.

Many are destined to reason wrongly others not to reason at all: and others to persecute those who do reason.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. It is not enough that a thing be possible for it to be believed.

Never having been able to succeed in the world he took his revenge by speaking ill of it.

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

The secret of being tiresome is in telling everything.

Men use thought only to justify their wrongdoings and speech only to conceal their thoughts.

There are truths that are not for all men nor for all times.

You (Pindar) who possessed the talent of speaking much without saying anything.

Work banishes those three great evils boredom vice and poverty.

Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.

Can you really believe that a drop of urine is an infinity of monads, and that each of these has ideas, however obscure, of the universe as a whole?

To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.

It is forbidden to kill therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.

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

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

Religion was instituted to make us happy in this life and in the other. What must we do to be happy in the life to come? Be just.

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

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

Chance is a word void of sense nothing can exist without a cause.

God gave us the gift of life it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.