Quotes Voltaire

 

Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy. 

Voltaire, French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)  

   

 


...the safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we

can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
 Voltaire



A witty saying proves nothing.
 Voltaire


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

because it comes from God.
  Voltaire
   



Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die

without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last

moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost

them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.
 Voltaire



Anything too stupid to be said is sung.
Voltaire


Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
 Voltaire


Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
 Voltaire
   



Each player must accept the cards life deals him.
But once they are in hand, he alone must decide
how to play the cards in order to win the game.
Voltaire



Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do.
Voltaire


God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
  Voltaire




God is always on the side of the big battalions.
 Voltaire



History is a pack of lies we play on the dead.
 Voltaire



I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
Voltaire
   
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
Voltaire



Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
Voltaire
    

Indolence is sweet, and its consequences bitter.
Voltaire


It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Voltaire
   

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


Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
  Voltaire

  
Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.
 Voltaire

   
Love truth, and pardon error.
 Voltaire
    

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
 Voltaire
  

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

   
Prejudice is opinion without judgement.
 Voltaire
   

Regimen is superior to medicine.
Voltaire


The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
Voltaire
   

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
Voltaire
   


The secret of being boring is to say everything.
 Voltaire
   
There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.
 Voltaire



Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Voltaire
    
    
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
 Voltaire


    
Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
Voltaire


You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.
Voltaire


God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
Voltaire, (attributed)


I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire, (Attributed); originated in "The Friends of Voltaire", 1906, by S. G. Tallentyre (Evelyn Beatrice Hall)


Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.
 Voltaire, Candide, 1759


God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
 Voltaire
   

God is always on the side of the big battalions.
 Voltaire


History is a pack of lies we play on the dead.
 Voltaire


I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
Voltaire


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


Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
 Voltaire


Indolence is sweet, and its consequences bitter.
 Voltaire


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


Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
 Voltaire


Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.
Voltaire


Love truth, and pardon error.
 Voltaire
  

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
   Voltaire


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

Prejudice is opinion without judgement.
 Voltaire
 

Regimen is superior to medicine.
 Voltaire


The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
  Voltaire
  

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
Voltaire
  

The secret of being boring is to say everything.
Voltaire


There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.
 Voltaire


Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Voltaire
 









Voltaire (pseud. of Francois Marie Arouet)
Biography French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist; leading philosopher of the Enlightenment; wrote "Candide", "Zadig", "La Henriade", "Discourse on Man"