Voltaire Quotes, Sayings, Remarks, Thoughts and Speeches
Voltaire Quotes and Sayings
- 1
A witty saying proves nothing.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 2
All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 3
All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 4
All styles are good except the tiresome kind.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 5
All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 6
An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 7
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 8
Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 9
Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 10
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 11
As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 12
Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 13
Better is the enemy of good.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 14
Business is the salt of life.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 15
By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 16
Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 17
Clever tyrants are never punished.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 18
Common sense is not so common.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 19
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 20
Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 21
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 22
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 23
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 24
Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 25
Everything's fine today, that is our illusion.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 26
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 27
Fear follows crime and is its punishment.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 28
Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 29
Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 30
God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 31
God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 32
God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 33
Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 34
He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 35
He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 36
He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 37
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 38
He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 39
He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 40
History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 41
History should be written as philosophy.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 42
How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child's board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 43
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 44
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 45
I hate women because they always know where things are.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 46
I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 47
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 48
I have only ever made one prayer to God, a very short one: O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 49
I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 50
I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 51
Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 52
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 53
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 54
If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 55
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 56
In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 57
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 58
In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 59
In this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 60
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 61
Injustice in the end produces independence.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 62
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 63
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 | Refcard PDF ↑
- 64
It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 65
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 66
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 67
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 68
It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 69
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 70
It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 71
It is not known precisely where angels dwell whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we should be informed of their abode.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 72
It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 73
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 74
It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 75
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 76
It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 77
It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 78
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 79
Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 80
Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 81
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 | Refcard PDF ↑
- 82
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 | Refcard PDF ↑
- 83
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 84
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 85
Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 86
Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 87
Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 88
My life is a struggle.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 89
Nature has always had more force than education.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 90
Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry always gets the best of the argument.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 91
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 92
No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 93
Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 94
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 95
Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 96
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 97
One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 98
Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 99
Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 100
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 101
Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 102
Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 103
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 104
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 105
Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 106
Society therefore is an ancient as the world.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 107
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 | Refcard PDF ↑
- 108
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 109
Tears are the silent language of grief.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 110
The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 111
The ancients recommended us to sacrifice to the Graces, but Milton sacrificed to the Devil.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 112
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 | Refcard PDF ↑
- 113
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 114
The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 115
The best is the enemy of the good.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 116
The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 117
The ear is the avenue to the heart.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 118
The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 119
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 | Refcard PDF ↑
- 120
The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 121
The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 122
The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 123
The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 124
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 | Refcard PDF ↑
- 125
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 | Refcard PDF ↑
- 126
The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 127
The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 128
The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 129
The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 130
The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 131
The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 132
The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 133
The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 134
The superfluous, a very necessary thing.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 135
The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 136
The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 137
The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 138
The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 139
There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 140
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 141
This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 142
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 143
Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 144
To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 145
To hold a pen is to be at war.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 146
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 147
To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 148
To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 149
Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 150
Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 151
Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 152
Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 153
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 154
We are rarely proud when we are alone.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 155
We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 156
We cannot wish for that we know not.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 157
We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 158
We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 159
We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 160
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 161
Weakness on both sides is, as we know, the motto of all quarrels.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 162
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 163
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 164
What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 165
What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 166
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 167
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 168
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
- 169
Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.
Voltaire | Refcard PDF ↑
