François-Marie Arouet, who used to go by the pen name Voltaire, was a widely recognised French writer and poet, best known for his creative style of writing, poems, plays, and polemics. He was also a historian and philosopher who very adequately utilised his freedom of speech and religion. He was a staunch opposer of Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church.
His work was popular all over the world and was widely appreciated and celebrated.
Here are some of the greatest quotes by Voltaire:
Love truth, but pardon error.
Honesty is indeed the best policy and one should never assort to anything but the truth. But that does not mean that you don't ever excuse an error or a lie. After all, we are all humans. Mistakes are bound to happen by any and everybody, which is why everyone should be given a chance or two to redeem their errors.
Dare to think for yourself.
One must look out for him/herself before anyone else.
Before thinking about other people, think about yourself first. For instance, if there is a particular thing that you are supposed to do, think about whether or not it would suit you or your time or your lifestyle, rather than thinking about whether it is in other people's best interests or not.
If think for yourself, only then will you be able to do what's best for yourself too.
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
Prejudice is a preconceived opinion or perception, which is not based on actual experience or on any facts.
When someone falls short of reasons or facts, it is then when they tend to assort to prejudice, and that is when one knows that they are just arguing with a fool because a smart and sensible individual will never use prejudice to win an argument or shirk from facts and reasons.
Don't think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.
Money can only buy luxuries, and materialistic things can only keep someone happy and content for so long. This is why it is wise to not think of money as the ultimate goal because it is not everything, there are so many other little things and other people in life that tend to make it worthwhile.
If you think that money is everything, you are bound to run after it your whole life, only to regret wasting your life at the end.
Perfect is the enemy of the good.
Neither any human nor any thing is perfect; perfect is just an illusion created by us which is the enemy of good and companion of greed. This is because if something is good, people want it to be perfect and are seldom satisfied with it being simply good. They always end up wanting more, i.e., perfection.
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
You only let something hold power over you if you give it that authority to do so. Therefore, it is in our control to not let our mistakes and downfalls define us; one should simply learn from them and let them go because the more you hold onto your failures, the more torment they are to bring you, thereby ending up disrupting the peace of your mind and shaking your confidence.
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her; but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
Voltaire here, has quite cleverly compared life to a game of cards; we are all players in the game of life, where once we are given the cards, it is only us who has the power to play the cards according to our will and strategy, and we ourselves can make us win or lose.
One's life is in his/her own hands, and nobody else controls it. Therefore, one should do what's best for them and be wise and smart enough to figure out what's bets for them, if they wish to win.
God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.
We have already been granted the gift of life by God, but it is on us to grant ourselves the gift of living and not merely existing. It is only us who can make sure that we live life to the fullest every day, do things that we want to do and the things that make us happy. And if we fail to live life, then that too, is on us, because it is only us who are in control of our own lives, and nobody else.
It is not sufficient to see and known the beauty of a work. We must feel and be moved by it.
Until and unless a work of art does not move you or makes you feel attached to it, you have not seen its beauty then, even if you claim to admire it. One needs to be able to relate to or feel moved by a piece of work for them to truly see its beauty and appreciate it.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
You cannot achieve perfection in a matter of a day or two, or according to your time. It takes a lot of hard work, constant practice, honest efforts, determination, and the willpower, along with ample amount of time, for one to get perfect at something, be it anything.
In order to be perfect, one must first learn to be strong enough to not give up after mistakes and failures because there bound to be obstacles, and patient enough to wait for their efforts to bore its fruit. One also needs to be accommodating enough to accept the result as per the efforts and the energy they put into it.
To achieve a goal, a dream, a wish, you must plan it out for success.
Simply desiring something or wanting to achieve it is not enough for one to reach till their destination and attain their goal. One must thoroughly map everything out, including the process and the plan of achieving their goal, the aftermath, ways to counter difficulties, etc.
Without a well-informed plan and plot, you are bound to get lost or stuck in the middle because working out things haphazardly and as and when they come, has only ever worked out in anyone's favour. This is why it is essential to have a plan for one to succeed in life.
Indolence is sweet, and its consequence is bitter.
Being lazy and doing nothing always feels good and relaxing, but it is always dangerous in the long run. This is why Voltaire has said that idleness might feel sweet initially, but its consequence and the aftermath are always bitter.
We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden, he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.
The garden of Eden is referred to as the garden of Gods or paradise; when a man was put into heaven, it was done so as to make him work, and not for the purpose of relaxation or that of resting.
This is why Voltaire says that we must cultivate our own garden. He meant that we have to work thoroughly and hard if we wish to have a good and successful life.
Continue reading more Voltaire quotes...
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
An individual is held captive the most by nobody else but his own mind, which is why, it is also in his/her own control to set themselves free from what restricts them from being happy and living life to its fullest.
A person is free and happy the moment he/she wants to be because it is only us, who hold that power and no one else.
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
Everybody makes mistakes and has flaws; nobody is perfect. Therefore, it is not only unjust but also inhumane, to not pardon anyone of their errors and for someone to not pardon one of yours. We are all humans, we are bound to have downfalls and face failures, but that does not mean anybody is lesser or is less worthy of respect or love.
It is our duty to forgive each other and go forward with only love, respect, and happiness, and never hatred or bitterness for anybody or anyone, in life.
The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
The best and the safest way to lead one's life is to never go against what your conscience tells you to because that never turns out in anybody's favour and will only end up backfiring on you.
Always listen to your gut and your conscience, and never do something that you know for a fact that is wrong and against your ideals or principles. This way, one will fully be able to enjoy their life without any fears, not even that of death.
It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.
Merely escaping or fleeing one's inhibitions is not enough for they will catch up to you; that is what cowards do, try to run away, only to end up defeated. The ones who are truly brave, will stand and look their miseries in the eye and fight them head-on, instead of running away because only then are one's fears going to be defeated.
In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
The news might be true at times, but that is not always the case. Sometimes, the news and other such sources tend to blind the general public from facts, figures, and the actual statistics, which is why one should never jump on conclusions based on information presented by the news; sometimes they also fail to deliver the complete and detailed information. One should always wait for confirmation of any incident or situation after it has been presented on the news.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Questions are what lead to answers, and it is the kind of questions that tell you more about a person than his answers. This is because not do questions tell you how much someone is really listening to you, but also tend to measure how clever or sensible that person is.
Questions tend to pave the way for answers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities; can make you commit atrocities.
People who make are in support of, and who make you believe all sorts of irrational things and absurd things, the kind of things that seldom hold a probable cause or reason, are also the people who will have you commit crimes too.
One should always maintain a certain distance from such people for they are never good for one in the long run.
Conclusion
In this article, we have read some of the best Voltaire Quotes on Freedom, Religion, Tolerance and Democracy with their meanings.
Co-author: Khushi Shah
Khushi has just passed her school and is now studying at PDPU. Apart from writing, she likes to sketch and dance. She also has other blogs where she posts proses and poetry.
