Voltaire Quotes

All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.

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

Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because there is nothing to be gained by him.

The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything.

History never repeats itself. Man always does.

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.

A long dispute means both parties are wrong.

True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.

I read only to please myself, and enjoy only what suits my taste.

Self love is the instrument of our preservation.

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

You will notice that in all disputes between Christians since the birth of the Church, Rome has always favored the doctrine which most completely subjugated the human mind and annihilated reason.

The famous physician Dumoulin said when dying, 'I leave two great physicians behind me, simple food and pure water.'

Present opportunities are not to be neglected; they rarely visit us twice.

What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.

Great men have all been formed either before academies or independent of them.

Let us read, and let us dance — these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.

Theological religion is the source of all imaginable follies and disturbances. It is the parent of fanaticism and civil discord; it is the enemy of mankind.

True power and true politeness are above vanity.

Needless to say since Christ's expiation not one single Christian has been known to sin, or die.

Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.

Slavery is also as ancient as war, and war as human nature.

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

History is only the pattern of silken slippers descending the stairs to the thunder of hobnailed boots climbing upward from below.

Once your faith persuades you to believe what your intelligence declares absurd, beware, lest you likewise sacrifice your reason in the conduct of your life.

Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.

If you want good laws, burn those you have and make new ones.

The secret of boring people lies in telling them everything.

Where some states possess an army, the Prussian Army possesses a state.

The tyranny of the many would be when one body takes over the rights of others, and then exercises its power to change the laws in its favor.

The more he became truly wise, the more he distrusted everything he knew.

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

History is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play upon the dead.

There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics. ... We repeat, there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer.

It is the first law of friendship that it has to be cultivated. The second is to be indulgent when the first law is neglected.

We know that all the arts are brothers, that each of them illuminates another, and that a universal light results.

What! Have you no monks to teach, to dispute, to govern, to intrigue and to burn people who do not agree with them?

God created woman to tame man.

A physician is an unfortunate gentleman who is every day required to perform a miracle; namely to reconcile health with intemperance.

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

The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.

Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.

I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.

Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.

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.

There are no sects in geometry.

A man loved by a beautiful woman will always get out of trouble.

Fanaticism, to which men are so much inclined, has always served not only to render them more brutalized but more wicked.

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