Voltaire Quotes

Voltaire was a genius, and his quotes are filled with wisdom that still makes sense today. He was one of the greatest French writers, known for his advocacy of freedom of speech and religion, as well as an important philosopher during the Enlightenment era. In this blog post, we’ve gathered over 90 of his best quotes, so enjoy these Voltaire quotes!

image shows a black and white drawing of Voltaire surrounded by a white oval and on top of a dark green background. — These Voltaire quotes are really insightful!

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
“To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.”
“Love truth, and pardon error.”
“The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”
“God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.”
“We must cultivate our own garden.”
“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.”
“Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.”
“Every man is the creature of the age in which he lives; very few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.”
“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.”
“We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies—it is the first law of nature.”
“Tears are the silent language of grief.”
“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?”
“It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.”
“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.”
“The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular.”
“The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude.”
“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.”
“The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.”
“It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions.”
“Originality is nothing but judicious imitation.”
“Let us cultivate our garden.”
“I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery.”
“We must have recourse to irony: instead of melting into tears because we are unhappy, let us try to laugh at the smallness and the absurdity of our troubles—whether they are real or only imaginary.”
“One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.”
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
“What is history? The lie that everyone agrees on.”
“I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
“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.”
“God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.”
“The art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.”
“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.”
“Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.”
“We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.”
“Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.”
“The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.”
“A witty saying proves nothing.”
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”
“It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.”
“Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.”
“The more a man knows, the less he talks.”
“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
“The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.”
“Men argue, nature acts.”
“The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
“Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.”
“Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”
“In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.”
“Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.”
“It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.”
“The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.”
“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.”
“All styles are good except the tiresome kind.”
“I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it.”
“The mirror is a worthless invention. The only way to truly see yourself is in the reflection of someone else’s eyes.”
“Perfect is the enemy of good.”
“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”
“Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”
“Common sense is not so common.”
“Don’t think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.”
“Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.”
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”
“I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”
“Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.”
“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”
“Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.”
“The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom.”
“Empower Your Mind Anywhere Anytime.”
“The dumbest people I know are those who know it all.”
“Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.”
“Prejudices are what fools use for reason.”
“Love truth, but pardon error.”
“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
“Truly, whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.”
“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.”
“We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies.”
“I have wanted, more than once, to hold back or to kill my own works.”
“To succeed in the world, it is much more necessary to possess the penetration to discern who is a fool, than to discover who is a clever man.”
“Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy: the mad daughter of a wise mother.”
“It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.”
“The secret of being boring is to say everything.”
“Don’t think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.”
“The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom.”
“If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?”
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
“Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”
“I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.”
“Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.”
“I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
“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.”
“The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.”
“Perhaps there is nothing greater on earth than the sacrifice of youth and beauty, often of high birth, made by the gentle sex in order to work in hospitals for the relief of human misery, the sight of which is so revolting to our delicacy. Peoples separated from the Roman religion have imitated but imperfectly so generous a charity.”
“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.”

Thousands More Quotes For Any Occasion

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