Voltaire was a Renaissance man and accomplished playwright, man of letters, politician, and metaphysician. Voltaire’s intelligence, wit and style made him one of France’s greatest writers and philosophers. Voltaire was often an outspoken critic of religious intolerance and persecution.
Given his tendency to engage in polemical attacks on the government and the Catholic church, Voltaire more than once found himself in a thorny legal position and forced into various exiles and imprisonments.
(1694-1778)
– Voltaire Quotes –
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
~ Voltaire
A witty saying proves nothing.
~ Voltaire
All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.
~ Voltaire
All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
~ Voltaire
History should be written as philosophy.
~ Voltaire
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
Think for yourself, and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so, too.
~ Voltaire
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
~ Voltaire
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.
~ Voltaire
History is the lie commonly agreed upon.
~ Voltaire
I hate women because they always know where things are.
~ Voltaire
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
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: “O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it.
~ Voltaire
I have only ever made one prayer to God, a very short one: O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it.
~ Voltaire
I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.
~ Voltaire
I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.
~ Voltaire
Ice-cream is exquisite – what a pity it isn’t illegal.
~ Voltaire
Injustice in the end produces independence.
~ Voltaire
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
~ Voltaire
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
It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
~ Voltaire
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
~ Voltaire
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
~ Voltaire
It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.
~ Voltaire
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
~ Voltaire
It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.
~ Voltaire
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
Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well
~ Voltaire
It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.
~ Voltaire
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
~ Voltaire
It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.
~ Voltaire
The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
~ Voltaire
No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
~ Voltaire
As long as people believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities.
~ Voltaire
Each player must accept the cards that life deals him or her. But once in hand one must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
~ Voltaire
