Best Voltaire Quotes, Advice And Thoughts

 

 

François-Marie Arouet known by his nom de plume Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, history specialist and scholar acclaimed for his wit, his analysis of Christianity, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, just as his backing of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and separation of chapel and state.

 

Here are some of the Best Voltaire Quotes 

“I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.” ~ Voltaire

“A woman can keep one secret – the secret of her age” ~ Voltaire Quotes

“Self-love is the instrument of our preservation.” ~Voltaire

“You must have the devil in you to succeed in any of the arts” ~ 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

“It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.” ~ Voltaire

“One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.” ~ Voltaire

“The superfluous, a very necessary thing.” ~ Voltaire

“We must cultivate our own garden. When a 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

“I know of nothing more laughable than a doctor who does not die of old age.” ~ Voltaire

 

“God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.” ~ Voltaire

“What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.” ~ Voltaire

“Common sense is not so common.” ~ Voltaire

“Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.” ~ Voltaire Quotes

“Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.” ~ Voltaire

“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.” ~ Voltaire

“The United States has subcontracted Brazil for security and Canada for economic development. But they’re all reporting to Washington. The final decisions are made there,” ~ Voltaire

“Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.” ~ Voltaire

“If we do not find anything pleasant, at least we shall find something new” ~ Voltaire

“If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new.” ~ Voltaire

 

“I was never ruined but twice – once when I lost a lawsuit, once when I won one” ~ Voltaire

“We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.” ~ Voltaire

“Regimen is superior to medicine, especially as, from time immemorial, out of every hundred physicians, ninety-eight are charlatans” ~ Voltaire

“Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.” ~ Voltaire

“Let us read and let us dance – two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.” ~ Voltaire

“History is no more than the portrayal of crimes and misfortunes” ~ Voltaire

“It is only through timidity that states are lost.” ~ Voltaire

“He who dies before many witnesses always does so with courage.” ~ Voltaire

“One of the chief misfortunes of honest people is that they are cowardly.” ~ Voltaire

“Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly” ~ Voltaire

 

“Men who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create.” ~ Voltaire

“All men have equal rights to liberty, to their property, and to the protection of the laws” ~ Voltaire

“All people are equal, it is not birth, it is virtue alone that makes the difference.” ~ Voltaire

“Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too” ~ Voltaire

“A long dispute means that both parties are wrong” ~ Voltaire

“Men argue, nature acts.” ~ Voltaire Quotes

“Weakness on both sides is, the motto of all quarrels.” ~ Voltaire

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one.” ~ Voltaire

“Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.” ~ Voltaire

“The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.” ~ Voltaire

 

“Doubt is not a pleasant mental state, but certainty is a ridiculous one.” ~ Voltaire

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd” ~ Voltaire

“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

“It is fancy rather than taste which produces so many new fashions.” ~ Voltaire

“The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.” ~ Voltaire

“It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part, the rest is lost in the multitude” ~ Voltaire

“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

“It is far better to be silent than merely to increase the number of bad books.” ~ Voltaire

“All the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.” ~ Voltaire

“The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.” ~ Voltaire

 

 

 

50th of 100 Quotes By Voltaire

“I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil” ~ Voltaire

“All kinds are good except the kind that bores you.” ~ Voltaire

“It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is a resurrection” ~ Voltaire

“I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to men that the inventors of syllogisms. He who imagined a ship towers considerably above him who imagined innate ideas.” ~ Voltaire

“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.” ~ Voltaire Quotes

“We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.” ~ Voltaire

“Your destiny is that of a man, and your vows those of a god.” ~ Voltaire

“You must have the devil in you to succeed in the arts.” ~ Voltaire

“Animals have these advantages over man: They have no theologians to instruct them, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.” ~ Voltaire

“We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies it is the first law of nature.” ~ Voltaire

 

“I should stop myself from dying if a good joke or a good idea occurred to me” ~ Voltaire

“God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.” ~ Voltaire

“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” ~ Voltaire

“It is not loved that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.” ~ Voltaire

“To a toad, what is a beauty? A female with two pop-eyes, a wide mouth, yellow belly and spotted back” ~ Voltaire

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well” ~ Voltaire

“By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.” ~ Voltaire

“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong” ~ Voltaire

“The fate of a nation is often dependent upon the good or bad digestion of a prime minister.” ~ Voltaire

“Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them” ~ Voltaire

 

“Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts” ~ Voltaire

“The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force” ~ Voltaire

“I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.” ~ Voltaire

“The secret of being tiresome is in telling everything.” ~ Voltaire

“Clever tyrants are never punished.” ~ Voltaire Quotes

“A fool is a person who guesses and gets it wrong, a clever man is one who guesses, regardless of a time period, and gets it right” ~ Voltaire

“When he who hears does not know what he who speaks means, and when he who speaks does not know what he himself means, that is a philosophy” ~ Voltaire

“Prejudice is the reason for fools” ~ Voltaire

“Prejudices are what fools use for reason.” ~ Voltaire

“It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” ~ Voltaire

 

“He who thinks himself wise, O heavens! is a great fool” ~ Voltaire

“Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.” ~ Voltaire

“May God defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies.” ~ Voltaire

“History is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play upon the dead.” ~ Voltaire

“God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best” ~ Voltaire

“True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others” ~ Voltaire

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

“Ice-cream is exquisite. What a pity it isn’t illegal.” ~ Voltaire

“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.” ~ Voltaire

“Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.” ~ Voltaire

 

“We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongues, at our peril, risk and hazard.” ~ Voltaire

“Liberty, then, about which so many volumes have been written is when accurately defined, only the power of acting.” ~ Voltaire

“The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.” ~ Voltaire

“Men appear to prefer to ruin one another’s fortunes and to cut each other’s throats over a few miserable villages than to extend the means of human happiness” ~ Voltaire

“The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.” ~ Voltaire

“Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.” ~ Voltaire

“Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.” ~ Voltaire

“The multitude of books is making us ignorant.” ~ Voltaire

“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

“The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out” ~ Voltaire

 

100th of 100 Best Voltaire Quotes

 

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