Quotes By Voltaire

He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.

He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.

The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.

Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.

The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

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.

Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

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

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.

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

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.

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.

To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.

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.

Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.