Quotes by Voltaire
History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.
God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.
Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.
The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.
It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
Injustice in the end produces independence.
My life is a struggle.
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.
We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
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.
The best is the enemy of the good.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.
Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.
Society therefore is an ancient as the world.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
All styles are good except the tiresome kind.
Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.