All Quotes

"I am Joan of Arc. I am Clemenceau."

"Moderation is the pleasure of the wise."

"Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy: a very stupid daughter of a very wise mother."

"One dies twice: to cease to live is nothing, but to cease to love and to be loved is an insupportable death."

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

"Illusion is the first of all pleasures."

"If as much care were taken to perpetuate a race of fine men as is done to prevent the mixture of ignoble blood in horses and dogs, the genealogy of every one would be written on his face and displayed in his manners."

"All religions are more or less mixed with superstitions. Man is not reasonable enough to content himself with a pure and sensible religion, worthy of the Deity."

"Society depends upon women. The nations who confine them are unsociable."

"The art of praising caused the art of pleasing."

"Philosophers and men of letters have done more for mankind than Orpheus, Hercules, or Theseus; for it is more meritorious and more difficult to wean men from their prejudices than to civilize the barbarian : It is harder to correct than to instruct."

"Laws should never be in contradiction to usages; for, if the usages are good, the laws are valueless."

"Voltaire inscribed on a statue of Love: "Whoever thou art, behold thy master! He rules thee, or has ruled thee, or will rule thee!""

"Why do we dream in our sleep if we have no soul? and, if we have one, how is it that dreams are so incoherent and extravagant?"

"History is only a record of crimes and misfortunes."

"All the reasoning of man is not worth one sentiment of woman."

"With the world, do not resort to injuries, but only to irony and gayety: injury revolts, while irony makes one reflect, and gayety disarms."

"In those countries where the morals are the most dissolute, the language is the most severe; as if they would replace on the lips what has deserted the heart."

"The reasonable worship of a just God who punishes and rewards, would undoubtedly contribute to the happiness of men; but when that salutary knowledge of a just God is disfigured by absurd lies and dangerous superstitions, then the remedy turns to poison."

"This world is but a lottery of goods, of ranks, of dignities, of rights."

"Well! sage Evhemere, what have you seen in all your travels?" "Follies!"

"None have lived without shedding tears."

"It takes twenty years to bring man from the state of embryo, and from that of a mere animal, as he is in his first infancy, to the point when his reason begins to dawn. It has taken thirty centuries to know his structure; it would take eternity to know something of his soul: it takes but an instant to kill him."

"Life is long enough for him who knows how to use it. Working and thinking extend its limits."

"Stupid stoics! you want to change man, and you destroy him!"

"Can we not seek the author of life but in the obscure labyrinth of theology?"

"Self-love is a balloon filled with wind, from which tempests emerge when pricked."

"It is strange that thought should depend upon the stomach, and still that men with the best stomachs are not always the best thinkers."

"Jest with life: for that only is it good."

"O God, whom the world misjudges, and whom everything declares! listen to the last words that my lips pronounce! If I have wandered, it was in seeking Thy law. My heart may go astray, but it is full of Thee! I see, without alarm, eternity appear; and I can not think that a God who has given me life, that a God who has poured so many blessings on my days, will, now that my days are done, torment me for ever!"

"L'étymologie est une science où les voyelles ne font rien et les consonnes fort peu de chose."

"Les médecins administrent des médicaments dont ils savent très peu, à des malades dont ils savent moins, pour guérir des maladies dont ils ne savent rien."

"I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker."

"L'adjectif est l'ennemi du substantif."

"The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination."

""There is no God, but don't tell that to my servant, lest he murder me at night". False quote, misattributed to Voltaire by Yuval Noah Harari in his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind"

"Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung."

"Business is the salt of life."

"Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it."

"Defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies."

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

"God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere."

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."

"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers."

"No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible."

"Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense."

"To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize?"

"One hundred years from my day there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity seeker."

"France is a nation with one religion and many sauces; England is a nation with many religions and only one sauce."

"I grew bored in France -- and the main reason is that everyone here resembles Voltaire."