François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his nom de plume M. de Voltaire, he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity — especially of the Roman Catholic Church — and of slavery.
Voltaire Quotes
The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important aims of philosophy.
—Voltaire
Come! you presence will either give me life or kill me with pleasure.
—Voltaire
Doctors put drugs of which they know little into bodies of which they know less for diseases of which they know nothing at all.
—Voltaire
The more a man knows, the less he talks.
—Voltaire
Men argue. Nature acts.
—Voltaire
In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.
—Voltaire
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.
—Voltaire
When a man is in love, jealous, and just whipped by the Inquisition, he is no longer himself.
—Voltaire
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
Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.
—Voltaire
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
—Voltaire
Opinions have caused more ills than the plague or earthquakes on this little globe of ours.
—Voltaire
Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.
—Voltaire
What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men, and that as a result he’s certain he’ll go to heaven if he cuts your throat?
—Voltaire
We are rarely proud when we are alone.
—Voltaire
The best is the enemy of good.
—Voltaire
To hold a pen is to be at war.
—Voltaire
Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.
—Voltaire
It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.
—Voltaire
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
—Voltaire
I would rather obey a fine lion, much stronger than myself, than two hundred rats of my own species.
—Voltaire
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid – one must also be polite.
—Voltaire
Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.
—Voltaire
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.
—Voltaire
She blushed and so did he. She greeted him in a faltering voice, and he spoke to her without knowing what he was saying.
—Voltaire
Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.
—Voltaire
I loved him as we always love for the first time; with idolatry and wild passion.
—Voltaire
History never repeats itself. Man always does.
—Voltaire
The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude.
—Voltaire
One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.
—Voltaire