Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about Voltaire
Voltaire Quotes
351 Sourced Quotes
Source
Report...
One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
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.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
Self-love is a balloon filled with wind, from which tempests emerge when pricked.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
The interest I have to believe a thing is no proof that such a thing exists.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
Liberty of thought is the life of the soul.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
In this country [England] it is useful from time to time to kill one admiral in order to encourage the others.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
We can not always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
I cannot guess what may be the fate of Quakerism in America; but I perceive it loses ground daily in England. In all countries, where the established religion is of a mild and tolerating nature, it will at length swallow up all the rest.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
A people that sells its own children is more condemnable than the buyer; this commerce demonstrates our superiority; he who gives himself a master was born to have one.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
Weakness on both sides is, as we know, the motto of all quarrels.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
Would you console yourself when you die for parting from those with whom you liked to live? Think that they will be soon consoled for your death.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
If you have two religions in your land, the two will cut each other's throats; but if you have thirty religions, they will dwell in peace
Voltaire
Source
Report...
Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts florish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any experienced in a town when it is under siege.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
People sometimes say: "Common sense is quite rare."
Voltaire
Source
Report...
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.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
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.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
Error flies from mouth to mouth, from pen to pen, and to destroy it takes ages.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
To General Manstein:
The king [Frederic] has sent me some of his dirty linen to wash; I will wash yours another time.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
We should be considerate to the living; to the dead we owe only the truth.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
Christ was baptized by John, but He Himself never baptized any one; now we profess ourselves disciples of Christ, and not of John.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.
Voltaire
Source
Report...
If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent one.
Voltaire
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
...
15
Quote of the day
We owe something to extravagance, for thrift and adventure seldom go hand in hand.
Lady Randolph Churchill
Voltaire
Creative Commons
Born:
November 21, 1694
Died:
May 30, 1778
(aged 83)
Bio:
François-Marie Arouet, famous using his pen name Voltaire, was a French writer, deist and philosopher.
Known for:
Candide (1759)
Zadig (1747)
L'Ingénu (1767)
Micromégas
Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)
Most used words:
men
god
love
life
work
nature
virtue
religion
soul
read
thought
time
three
years
poverty
Voltaire on Wikipedia
Voltaire works on Gutenberg Project
Voltaire works on Wikisource
Suggest an edit or a new quote
Voltaire Quotes
Voltaire Short Quotes
Quotes about Voltaire
French Philosopher Quotes
Philosopher Quotes
18th-century Philosopher Quotes
Related People
Montesquieu
French Philosopher
Denis Diderot
French Philosopher
John Locke
English Philosopher
Thomas Hobbes
English Philosopher
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes