Quotes By Voltaire

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.

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.

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.

Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.

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

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

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.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.