Voltaire quotes:

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God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.
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.
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.
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.
Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.
Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
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.
We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.
We must cultivate our own garden. When 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.
The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
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.
It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.
The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.
It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.
What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.
Religion was instituted to make us happy in this life and in the other. What must we do to be happy in the life to come? Be just.
In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.
Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.
Such is the feebleness of humanity, such is its perversity, that doubtless it is better for it to be subject to all possible superstitions, as long as they are not murderous, than to live without religion.
My life is a struggle.
Nature has always had more force than education.
Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.
Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him.
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
The best is the enemy of the good.
Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes.
All men are born with a nose and five fingers, but no one is 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.
To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.
Injustice in the end produces independence.
History should be written as philosophy.
Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.
By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.
Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.
The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything.
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 first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.
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.
A witty saying proves nothing.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Fear follows crime and is its punishment.
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions.
Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one's country is to wish harm to one's neighbors.
So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one's fatherland is to wish evil to one's neighbors. The citizen of the universe would be the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer.
Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.
Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.
It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
When man was put into the garden of eden, he was put there with the idea that he should work the land; and this proves that man was not born to be idle.
Do you believe,' said Candide, 'that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?'Do you believe,' said Martin, 'that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?"
Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
The wicked can have only accomplices, the voluptuous have companions in debauchery, self-seekers have associates, the politic assemble the factions, the typical idler has connections, princes have courtiers. Only the virtuous have friends.
The worthy administrators of justice are like a cat set to take care of a cheese, lest it should be gnawed by the mice. One bite of the cat does more damage to the cheese than twenty mice can do.
An admiral should be put to death now and then to encourage the others.
In this country [England] it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, to encourage the others. The reference is to Admiral John Byng, who was executed in 1757 for failing to prevent the French from taking Minorca.
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
All the ancient histories, as one of our wits say, are just fables that have been agreed upon
We adore, we invoke, we seek to appease, only that which we fear.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.
Do you think... that men have always massacred each other, as they do today? Have they always been liars, cheats, traitors, brigands, weak, flighty, cowardly, envious, gluttonous, drunken, grasping, and vicious, bloody, backbiting, debauched, fanatical, hypocritical, and silly?
How inexpressible is the meanness of being a hypocrite! how horrible is it to be a mischievous and malignant hypocrite.
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.
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.
Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.
Optimism," said Cacambo, "What is that?" "Alas!" replied Candide, "It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.
Excellently observed", answered Candide; "but let us cultivate our garden.
All men are by nature free; you have therefore an undoubted liberty to depart whenever you please, but will have many and great difficulties to encounter in passing the frontiers.
It is love; love, the comfort of the human species, the preserver of the universe, the soul of all sentient beings, love, tender love.
What a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide. "That is because I know what life is," said Martin.
You're a bitter man," said Candide. That's because I've lived," said Martin.
But for what purpose was the earth formed?" asked Candide. "To drive us mad," replied Martin.
The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.
The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.
Clever tyrants are never punished.
I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.
Common sense is not so common.
Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal.
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
I hate women because they always know where things are.
Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.
One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.
Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.
If there are atheists, who is to be blamed if not the mercenary tyrants of souls who, in revolting us against their swindles, compel some feeble spirits to deny the God whom these monsters dishonour?
Doctors put drugs of which they know little into bodies of which they know less for diseases of which they know nothing at all.
Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
The ear is the avenue to the heart.

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