“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”
― Voltaire
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
― Voltaire
“Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”
― Voltaire
“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
― Voltaire
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
― Voltaire
“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.”
― Voltaire
“Common sense is not so common.”
― Voltaire
“I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?”
― Voltaire
“Love truth, but pardon error.”
― Voltaire
“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it.”
(Letter to Étienne Noël Damilaville, May 16, 1767)”
― Voltaire
“I don’t know where I am going, but I am on my way.”
― Voltaire
“God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.”
― Voltaire
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”
― Voltaire
“Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.”
― Voltaire
“Dare to think for yourself.”
― Voltaire
“Now, now my good man, this is no time to be making enemies.”
(Voltaire on his deathbed in response to a priest asking him that he renounce Satan.)”
― Voltaire
“Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day.”
― Voltaire
“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”
― Voltaire
“The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.”
― Voltaire
“God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.”
― Voltaire
“The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.”
― Voltaire
“Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.”
― Voltaire
“Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”
― Voltaire
“It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.”
― Voltaire
“Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.”
― Voltaire
“Faith consists in believing what reason cannot.”
― Voltaire
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
― Voltaire
“Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.”
― Voltaire
“Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.”
― Voltaire
“Ice-cream is exquisite. What a pity it isn’t illegal.”
― Voltaire
“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
― Voltaire
“The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.”
― Voltaire
“Optimism,” said Cacambo, “What is that?” “Alas!” replied Candide, “It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.”
― Voltaire
“You’re a bitter man,” said Candide.
That’s because I’ve lived,” said Martin.”
― Voltaire
“Let us cultivate our garden.”
― Voltaire
“Prejudices are what fools use for reason.”
― Voltaire
“We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.”
― Voltaire
“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.”
― Voltaire
“Don’t think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.”
― Voltaire
“The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”
― Voltaire
“What is history? The lie that everyone agrees on…”
― Voltaire
“It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.”
― Voltaire
“Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all.”
― Voltaire
“No opinion is worth burning your neighbor for.”
― Voltaire
“Man is free at the instant he wants to be.”
― Voltaire
“Sensual pleasure passes and vanishes, but the friendship between us, the mutual confidence, the delight of the heart, the enchantment of the soul, these things do not perish and can never be destroyed.”
― Voltaire
“But for what purpose was the earth formed?” asked Candide. “To drive us mad,” replied Martin.”
― Voltaire
“If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?”
― Voltaire, Candide
“It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.”
― Voltaire
“I should like to know which is worse: to be ravished a hundred times by pirates, and have a buttock cut off, and run the gauntlet of the Bulgarians, and be flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, and be dissected, and have to row in a galley — in short, to undergo all the miseries we have each of us suffered — or simply to sit here and do nothing?’
That is a hard question,’ said Candide.”
― Voltaire