85 Finest Voltaire Quotes
François-Marie Arouet (born November 21, 1694, Paris, France – died May 30, 1778, Paris, France), better known by his pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, deist, and philosopher.
Key Takeaways
- Voltaire advocated for civil liberties, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state.
- As a satirical polemicist, he frequently criticized the Catholic Church and the French institutions of his day.
- His intelligence, wit, and especially style made him one of France’s greatest writers and philosophers, despite the controversy he attracted during his lifetime.
He was a versatile and prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including novels, poems, essays, plays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote over 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. One of his most famous books and the best example of his style is the satirical novella Candide (1759).
Voltaire’s works and ideas influenced many thinkers of both the American and French Revolutions.
Let us read, and let us dance – these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 134
Almost everything is imitation.Lettres philosophiques (ed. É. Cornély et cie, 1909), Lettre XXII, Page 136
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.Le dîner du comte de Boulainvilliers (1767)
A single part of physics occupies the lives of many men, and often leaves them dying in uncertainty.Eléments de Philosophie de Newton (1738), A Madame la Marquise du Châtelet, Avant-Propos
Think for yourselves, and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.The Works of Voltaire (ed. Du Mont, 1901), Volume 19, Toleration, Page 162
We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one.Voltaire's Notebooks (1735-50)
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.The Maid of Orleans (1756), The conclusive canto of the edition of 1756.
To constitute taste, it is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 44
To hold a pen is to be at war.Letter to Jeanne-Grâce Bosc du Bouchet, comtesse d'Argental (October 4, 1748)
Whoever tries to destroy the passions, instead of regulating them, tries to play the angel.Philosophical Letters (ed. Dover, 2003), Letter XXV, Page 143
Life is bristling with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one’s garden.Letter to Pierre-Joseph Luneau de Boisjermain (October 21, 1769)
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.Epître à l'auteur du livre des Trois imposteurs (1768)
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished who kill not in large companies, and to the sound of trumpets; it is the rule.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 106
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.Questions sur les miracles (1765)
What is toleration? It is the appurtenance of humanity. We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies – it is the first law of nature.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 100
Love is of all the passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart, and the body.Pensées, remarques et observations de Voltaire (1802)
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.The Age of Louis XIV (1752)
A minister is excusable for the evil he may do when the helm of the government is forced into his hands by storms of state; but when there is a calm, he is answerable for all the good he does not do.
(Also known as: Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.)The Age of Louis XIV (1751); The Works of Voltaire (ed. Werner, 1906), Page 102
Men who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 197
Opinions have caused more ills than the plague or earthquakes on this little globe of ours.Letter to Élie Bertrand (January 5, 1759)
Our labour keeps off from us three great evils – idleness, vice, and want.Candide; or, The Optimist (1759), (ed. George Routledge & Sons, 1888), Page 119
There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.Letter to François-Joachim de Pierre, cardinal de Bernis (April 23, 1764)
Optimism! said Cacambo, what is that? Alas! replied Candide, it is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.
(Also known as: Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.)Candide; or, The Optimist (1759), (ed. George Routledge & Sons, 1888), Page 69
What is called happiness is an abstract idea, composed of various ideas of pleasure; for he who has but a moment of pleasure is not a happy man, in like manner that a moment of grief constitutes not a miserable one.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 5
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy, the mad daughter of a wise mother.A Treatise on Toleration (1763), (ed. Prometheus Books, 1994), Page 207
Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all.Letter to Louise Dorothea of Meiningen, duchess of Saxe-Gotha Madame (January 30, 1762)
Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.Dialogue xiv, Le Chapon et la Poularde (1763)
Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing, and love those who love you.Letter to Jean le Rond d'Alembert (November 28, 1762)
The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 139
A false science makes atheists, a true science prostrates men before the Deity.Letters addressed to his Highness the Prince of *****, containing comments on the writings of the most eminent authors, who have been accused of attacking the Christian Religion (1769)
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Happiness is not the portion of man.Candide; or, The Optimist (1759), (ed. George Routledge & Sons, 1888), Page 168
Discord is the great evil of the human species, and toleration is its only remedy.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 106
We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.Essai sur les mœurs et l'esprit des nations (1756), Chapter CLXIII
In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 220
Work then without disputing, it is the only way to render life supportable.Candide; or, The Optimist (1759), (ed. George Routledge & Sons, 1888), Page 120
It is better to run the risk of sparing the guilty than to condemn an innocent.Zadig (1747), (ed. Washington Square Press, 1962), Page 150
We should be considerate to the living; to the dead we owe only the truth.Letter to M. de Grenonville (1719)
This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind; it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 186
The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.La Femme Qui a Raison (1759), Act II, Scene II
He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad. Epître au Roi de Prusse Frédéric le Grand (1740)
In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one part of the citizens to give to the other.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 12
Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 137
It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions.
(Also known as: God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.)Letter to François-Louis-Henri Leriche (February 6, 1770)
Religion is necessary wherever there is a settled society. The laws take care of known crimes; religion watches secret crime.A Treatise on Toleration (1763), (ed. Prometheus Books, 1994), Page 207
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot we must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 11
Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.Nanine (1749), Act II, Scene X
The opportunity of doing mischief occurs a hundred times in a day, and that of doing good but once a year.Zadig (1747), (ed. Washington Square Press, 1962), Page 143
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.Letter to Mme. d'Épinal, Ferney (December 26, 1760)
Virtue infers liberty, as the transport of a burden implies active force. With constraint there is no virtue, and without virtue no religion. Make me a slave and I shall be the worse for it. Even the sovereign has no right to employ force to lead men to religion, which essentially presumes choice and liberty. My opinions are no more dependent on authority than my sickness or my health.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 114
Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 193
Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because there is nothing to be gained by him.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 145
History is nothing more than a picture of crimes and misfortunes.The Huron; or, Pupil of Nature (1767), Chapter X
Tears are the silent language of grief.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 69
The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 134
The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.L'Indiscret (1725), Act I, Scene I
When we hear news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.Letter to Charles-Augustin Ferriol, comte d'Argental (August 28, 1760)
Weakness on both sides is, as we know, the motto of all quarrels.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 200
Faith consists in believing not what seems true, but what seems false to our understanding.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 326
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.Letter to Frederick William, Prince of Prussia (November 28, 1770)
That law should never be in contradiction to usage; for, if the usage is good, the law is worth nothing.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 78
Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.Lettre à Bordes (January 10, 1769)
Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet (1736), Act I, Scene II
Common sense is very rare.
(Also known as: Common sense is not so common.)Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 214
Fools admire everything in a celebrated author.Candide; or, The Optimist (1759), (ed. Modern Library, 1930), Page 122
It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.Voltaire's Notebooks (1735-50)
When men have not sound ideas of the divinity, false ideas will take their place; just as, in ages of impoverishment, when there is not sound money, people use bad coin.A Treatise on Toleration (1763), (ed. Prometheus Books, 1994), Page 207
The wicked find a pretext in everything.Philosophical Dictionary (1764), (ed. DuMont, 1901), Page 71
