Quotes By Voltaire

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

Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

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.

As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.

To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.

Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.

Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel.

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

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

It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.

Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.

The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.

The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.

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.

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

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

To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.

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.

Business is the salt of life.

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

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

He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.

The ancients recommended us to sacrifice to the Graces, but Milton sacrificed to the Devil.

I hate women because they always know where things are.

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

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.