Voltaire Quotes

We are rarely proud when we are alone.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.

The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him

The Jews have always been waiting for a Messiah, but their Messiah is for them only, not for us, a Messiah ho will give them mastery over the Christians.

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

A false science makes atheists, a true science prostrates men before the Deity

When truth is evident, it is impossible for parties and factions to rise. There never has been a dispute as to whether there is daylight at noon.

It is up to us to cultivate our garden.

It is love; love, the comfort of the human species, the preserver of the universe, the soul of all sentient beings, love, tender love.

All succeeds with people who are sweet and cheerful.

Opinion is called the queen of the world; it is so, for when reason opposes it, it is condemned to death. It must rise twenty times from its ashes to gradually drive away the usurper.

What is toleration? It is the prerogative of humanity. We are all steeped in weaknesses and errors: Let us forgive one another's follies, it is the first law of nature.

A multitude of laws in a country is like a great number of physicians, a sign of weakness and malady.

To enjoy life we must touch much of it lightly.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

We adore, we invoke, we seek to appease, only that which we fear.

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.

God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.

Men, generally going with the stream, seldom judge for themselves, and purity of taste is almost as rare as talent.

If you wish to converse with me, define your terms.

Music is the pathway to the heart.

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

I loved him as we always love the first time: with idolatry and wild passion.

The only reward to be expected from literature is contempt if one fails and hatred if one succeeds.

You must have the devil in you to succeed in the arts.

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.

Virtuous men alone possess friends.

The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.

Liberty, then, about which so many volumes have been written is, when accurately defined, only the power of acting.

It is far better to be silent than merely to increase the quantity of bad books.

History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up.

Nothing is so common as to imitate one's enemies, and to use their weapons.

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

A witty saying proves nothing.

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.

Better is the enemy of good.

History should be written as philosophy.

I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.

A yawn may not be polite, but at least it is an honest opinion.

The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.

A woman can keep one secret the secret of her age.

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

"You're a bitter man," said Candide. "That's because I've lived," said Martin.

Shakespeare is a drunken savage with some imagination whose plays please only in London and Canada.

History is the lie commonly agreed upon.

Will is wish, and liberty is power.

In France every man is either an anvil or a hammer; he is a beater or must be beaten.