Voltaire Quotes

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.

He is a hard man who is only just and a sad one who is only wise.

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

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

I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it.

The secret of being boring is to say everything.

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

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

The way to become boring is to say everything.

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

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

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

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.

A witty saying proves nothing.

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

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

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

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

May God defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies.

I have lost the half of myself - a soul for which mine was made.

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.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

Canada: A few acres of snow.

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

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 was never ruined but twice: once when I lost a lawsuit, and once when I won one.

Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were of course exterminated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

When we hear news we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.

This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

When it is a question of money, everyone is of the same religion.

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

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one.

Love truth, and pardon error.

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.

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

The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors.

Once the people begin to reason, all is lost.

The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman nor an Empire.

A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live.

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.

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.

The art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of the citizens to give to the other.

Common sense is not so common.

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

If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

Prejudice is opinion without judgement.

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

England has forty-two religions and only two sauces.