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Voltaire (1694 - 1778)
French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist [more author details]

Showing quotations 11 to 40 of 42 total

History is a pack of lies we play on the dead.: Voltaire
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [Enemies] [Prayer]
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [Atheism]
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [History] [Crime]
Indolence is sweet, and its consequences bitter.: Voltaire
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [Government]
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.: Voltaire
Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [Questioning]
Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.: Voltaire
Love truth, and pardon error.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [Truth]
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [Marriage]
Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [Equality]
Prejudice is opinion without judgement.: Voltaire
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Regimen is superior to medicine.: Voltaire
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [Medicine]
The multitude of books is making us ignorant.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [Books] [Ignorance]
The secret of being boring is to say everything.: Voltaire
There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [Silence]
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [Belief]
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.: Voltaire
- More quotations on: [Stupidity]
Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.: Voltaire
You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.: Voltaire
God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.: Voltaire, (attributed)
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.: Voltaire, (Attributed); originated in "The Friends of Voltaire", 1906, by S. G. Tallentyre (Evelyn Beatrice Hall)
Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.: Voltaire, Candide, 1759
- More quotations on: [Work]
There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts.: Voltaire, Dialogue, XIV, "Le Chapon et la Poularde" (1766)
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.: Voltaire, Discours en vers sur l'homme, 1737
- More quotations on: [Boredom]
This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.: Voltaire, Essai sur l'histoire generale et sur les moeurs et l'espirit des nations, 1756, Chapter 70
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.: Voltaire, Essay on Tolerance
The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him.: Voltaire, Letter (1769)

Showing quotations 11 to 40 of 42 total

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