Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
– Voltaire
The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.
– Voltaire
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
– Voltaire
God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
– Voltaire
What is history? The lie that everyone agrees on…
– Voltaire
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
– Voltaire
When it’s a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
– Voltaire
All kinds are good except the kind that bores you.
– Voltaire
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
– Voltaire
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.
– Voltaire
The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.
– Voltaire
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
– Voltaire
Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.
– Voltaire
If you have two religions in your land, the two will cut each other’s throats; but if you have thirty religions, they dwell in peace.
– Voltaire
Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.
– Voltaire
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
– Voltaire
I hate women because they always know where things are.
– Voltaire
We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.
– Voltaire
What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
– Voltaire
Originality is nothing by judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.
– Voltaire
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
– Voltaire
If you wish to converse with me,
define your terms.
– Voltaire
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
– Voltaire
What a heavy burden is a name that has become famous too soon.
– Voltaire
Common sense is not so common.
– Voltaire
The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.
– Voltaire
Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
– Voltaire
I know of nothing more laughable than a doctor who does not die of old age.
– Voltaire
Dare to think for yourself.
– Voltaire
It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.
– Voltaire
No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking.
– Voltaire
Pleasure is the object, duty and the goal of all rational creatures.
– Voltaire
Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.
– Voltaire
The punishment of criminals should be of use; when a man is hanged he is good for nothing.
– Voltaire
Atheism is the vice of a few intelligent people.
– Voltaire
Opinions have caused more ills than the plague or earthquakes on this little globe of ours.
– Voltaire
Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.
– Voltaire
We are rarely proud when we are alone.
– Voltaire
Injustice in the end produces independence.
– Voltaire
It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.
– Voltaire
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
– Voltaire
The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
– Voltaire
I hold firmly to my original views. After all I am a philosopher.
– Voltaire
All the citizens of a state cannot be equally powerful, but they may be equally free.
– Voltaire
Men use thought only to justify their wrong-doings, and words only to conceal their thoughts.
– Voltaire
An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
– Voltaire
Doubt is not a pleasant state of mind, but certainty is absurd.
– Voltaire
Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.
– Voltaire
Men employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.
– Voltaire
Fear follows crime and is its punishment.
– Voltaire