Famous Quotes

Quotes by Voltaire

• All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.
• All styles are good except the tiresome kind.
• All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
• An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
• Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.
• Better is the enemy of good.
• Business is the salt of life.
• Common sense is not so common.
• Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
• 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.
• Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
• Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
• Fear follows crime and is its punishment.
• Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.
• God gave us the gift of life it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.
• God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
• God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.
• He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.
• He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend provided, of course, he really is dead.
• He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.
• He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.
• History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.
• History should be written as philosophy.
• How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child's board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.
• I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
• I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
• I hate women because they always know where things are.
• I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
• If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
• If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
• If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him.
• In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
• In this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.
• Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
• Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
• It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge.
• It is forbidden to kill therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
• It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.