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Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire Quotes
French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist
 | Quotes by Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire |
| “ | Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.
letter to M. le Riche, February 6, 1770 | ” |
| “ | When we hear news we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
letter to Le Comte d'Argental, August 28, 1760 | ” |
| “ | The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him.
Letter (1769) | ” |
| “ | Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.
Essay on Tolerance | ” |
| “ | This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.
Essai sur l'histoire generale et sur les moeurs et l'espirit des nations, 1756, Chapter 70 | ” |
| “ | The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.
Discours en vers sur l'homme, 1737 | ” |
| “ | There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts.
Dialogue, XIV, "Le Chapon et la Poularde" (1766) | ” |
| “ | Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.
Candide, 1759 | ” |
| “ | I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
(Attributed); originated in "The Friends of Voltaire", 1906, by S. G. Tallentyre (Evelyn Beatrice Hall) | ” |
| “ | God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
(attributed) | ” |
| “ | 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. | ” |
| “ | Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy. | ” |
| “ | To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
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| “ | Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
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| “ | There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.
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| “ | The secret of being boring is to say everything. | ” |
| “ | The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
| ” |
| “ | The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
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| “ | Regimen is superior to medicine. | ” |
| “ | Prejudice is opinion without judgement.
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| “ | Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.
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| “ | Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
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| “ | Love truth, and pardon error.
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| “ | Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination. | ” |
| “ | Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
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| “ | It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. | ” |
| “ | It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
| ” |
| “ | Indolence is sweet, and its consequences bitter. | ” |
| “ | Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
| ” |
| “ | If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
| ” |
| “ | I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
| ” |
| “ | History is a pack of lies we play on the dead. | ” |
| “ | God is always on the side of the big battalions. | ” |
| “ | God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
| ” |
| “ | Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do. | ” |
| “ | Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
| ” |
| “ | Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. | ” |
| “ | Anything too stupid to be said is sung. | ” |
| “ | 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. | ” |
| “ | All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.
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| “ | A witty saying proves nothing.
| ” |
| “ | ...the safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death. | ” |
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