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Voltaire

French writer who was the embodiment of 18th century Enlightenment (1694-1778)

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"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.
'That is indisputable,' was the answer, 'but in this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.'
...the safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live.
A witty saying proves nothing.
All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.
All sects are different, because they come from men morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.
All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.
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.
Anything too stupid to be said is sung.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Canada: A few acres of snow.
Common sense is not so common.
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.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
England has forty-two religions and only two sauces.
Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do.
God created sex. Priests created marriage.
God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
God is always on the side of the big battalions.
He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.
I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.
I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to men that the inventors of syllogisms. He who imagined a ship towers considerably above him who imagined innate ideas.
I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.
I have lost the half of myself - a soul for which mine was made.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.
I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it.
I was never ruined but twice: once when I lost a lawsuit, and once when I won one.
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
It is far better to be silent than merely to increase the quantity of bad books.
It is forbidden to kill therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
It is new fancy rathert than taste which produces so many new fashions.
It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.
Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
Love truth, and pardon error.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
May God defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies.
Men are equal it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.
Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.
Once the people begin to reason, all is lost.
Prejudice is opinion without judgement.
Regimen is superior to medicine.
Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were of course exterminated.
The art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of the citizens to give to the other.
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors.
The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman nor an Empire.
The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him.
The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.
The secret of being boring is to say everything.
The way to become boring is to say everything.
There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.
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.
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.
This poem will never reach its destination.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid; you must also be well-mannered.
True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.
Use, do not abuse neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.
We are rarely proud when we are alone.
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
When it is a question of money, everyone is of the same religion.
When we hear news we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
Work saves us from three great evils boredom, vice and need.
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.
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.

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