Voltaire Quotes

“It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.”

“Changing a habit is hard work. But it's harder to find work that would be more fulfilling”

“Nothing could be smarter, more splendid, more brilliant, better drawn up than two armies. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, cannons, formed a harmony such as never been heard in hell.”

“It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.”

“The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.”

“A physician is an unfortunate gentleman who is every day required to perform a miracle; namely to reconcile health with intemperance.”

“Men argue. Nature acts.”

“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 expirienced in a town when it is under siege.”

“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.”

“"You're a bitter man," said Candide."That's because I've lived," said Martin.”

“To announce truths is an infallible receipt for being persecuted.”

“Men who have seen life and death... as an unbroken continuum, the swinging pendulum, have been able to move as freely into death as they walked through life. Socrates went to the grave almost perplexed by his companions' tears.”

“Martin in particular concluded that man was born to live either in the convulsions of misery, or in the lethargy of boredom.”

“It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.”

“Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.”

“I read only to please myself, and enjoy only what suits my taste.”

“In France every man is either an anvil or a hammer; he is a beater or must be beaten.”

“Je ne suis pas d'accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je d‚fendrai jusqu'... la mort le droit que vous avez de le dire/ I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it”

“All men have equal rights to liberty, to their property, and to the protection of the laws”

“Fear could never make virtue.”

“It is the triumph of superior reason to live with folks who don't have any.”

“Men fed upon carnage, and drinking strong drinks, have all an impoisoned and acrid blood which drives them mad in a hundred different ways.”

“To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.”

“Virtue between men is a commerce of good actions: he who has no part in this commerce must not be reckoned.”

“It is as impossible to translate poetry as it is to translate music.”