Voltaire Quotes

I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

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

Common sense is not so common.

Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do.

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

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.

The more a man reflects upon himself, the more pronounced his eccentricity.

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.

He who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.

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

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

Love truth, but pardon error.

If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new.

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

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

Voltaire Quotes part 2

We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.

It is the characteristic of the most stringent censorships that they give credibility to the opinions they attack.

There is no history of mankind, there are only biographies of men.

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.

Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.

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

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.

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.

Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them.

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies.

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

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.

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

History is filled with examples of people who have been punished for expressing their ideas. Unfortunately, we haven’t learned anything from those examples.

An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

Anything too stupid to be spoken is sung.

I often also say, the very man I like – ‘Well, let me have a good laugh!’ I laugh when I have no laughing left in me.

A witty saying proves nothing.

There are some who only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts.

God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions.

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

The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.

Perfect is the enemy of good.

The brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism, a pensioner, as it were, who dwells with the body.

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in eternal awareness or pure consciousness without objectification.

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.