Voltaire Quotes

In the country of Westphalia, in the castle of the most noble Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh, lived a youth whom nature had endowed with a most sweet disposition.
Voltaire

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

Injustice in the end produces independence.
Voltaire

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

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.
Voltaire

It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
Voltaire

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
Voltaire

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
Voltaire

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

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
Voltaire

It is new fancy rathert than taste which produces so many new fashions.
Voltaire

It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.
Voltaire

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

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

It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
Voltaire

It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.
Voltaire

It is today, my dear, that I take a perilous leap.
Voltaire

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.
Voltaire

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

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

Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.
Voltaire

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
Voltaire

Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same.
Voltaire

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

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
Voltaire

Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.
Voltaire

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.
Voltaire

Men use thought only to justify their wrong doings, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.
Voltaire

My life is a struggle.
Voltaire

Nature has always had more force than education.
Voltaire

Neither holy, nor Roman, nor Empire.
Voltaire

Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry always gets the best of the argument.
Voltaire

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
Voltaire

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
Voltaire

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.
Voltaire

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
Voltaire

Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.
Voltaire

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
Voltaire

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.
Voltaire

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.
Voltaire

Originality is nothing by judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.
Voltaire

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.
Voltaire

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.
Voltaire

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
Voltaire

Prejudice, friend, govern the vulgar crowd.
Voltaire

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.
Voltaire

Slavery is also as ancient as war, and was as human nature.
Voltaire

Society therefore is an ancient as the world.
Voltaire

Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.
Voltaire

Tears are the silent language of grief.
Voltaire

'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.'
Voltaire

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

The ancients recommended us to sacrifice to the Graces, but Milton sacrificed to the Devil.
Voltaire

The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third.
Voltaire

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

The best is the enemy of the good.
Voltaire

The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.
Voltaire

The ear is the avenue to the heart.
Voltaire

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.
Voltaire

The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say; but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work.
Voltaire

The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.
Voltaire

The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
Voltaire

The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.
Voltaire

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.
Voltaire

The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.
Voltaire

The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.
Voltaire

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
Voltaire

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