Voltaire Quotes

“There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics. ... We repeat, there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer.”

“History should be written as philosophy.”

“Dogs, monkeys, and parrots are a thousand times less miserable than we are.”

“The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.”

“Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.”

“We only half live when we only half think.”

“Among the illusions which have invested our civilization is an absolute belief that the solutions to our problems must be a more determined application of rationally organized expertise... The reality is that our problems are largely the product of that application.”

“How I like the boldness of the English, how I like the people who say what they think!”

“Individual misfortunes give rise to the general good; so that the more individual misfortunes exist, the more all is fine.”

“When a man is in love, jealous, and just whipped by the Inquisition, he is no longer himself.”

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

“had no need of a guide to learn ignorance”

“If you wish to converse with me, define your terms.”

“Opinion is called the queen of the world; it is so, for when reason opposes it, it is condemned to death. It must rise twenty times from its ashes to gradually drive away the usurper.”

“Love has various lodgings; the same word does not always signify the same thing.”

“I am a little deaf, a little blind, a little important and on top of this are two or three abominable infirmities, but nothing destroys my hope.”

“This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.”

“Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.”

“What is history? The lie that everyone agrees on.”

“Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.”

“There's scarce a point whereon mankind agree - So well as in their boast of killing me; I boast of nothing, but when I've a mind - I think I can be even with mankind”

“I confess that my stomach does not take to this style of cooking. I cannot accept calves sweetbreads swimming in a salty sauce, nor can I eat mince consisting of turkey, hare, and rabbit, which they try to persuade me comes from a single animal... As for the cooks, I really cannot be expected to put up with this ham essence, nor the excessive quantity of morels and other mushrooms, pepper, and nutmeg with which they disguise perfectly good food.”

“You see, Mademoiselle, I have experience, I know the world. To pass the time, why don't you ask every passenger to tell you his life's story? And if there is a single one among them who has never cursed his life, who has not often told himself that he was the unhappiest of men, then you may throw me overboard, headfirst!”

“He who seeks truth should be of no country.”

“Truth is a fruit which should not be plucked until it is ripe.”