Find the best quotes, maxims and aphorisms of Voltaire

Biography : François-Marie Arouet, known by his nom de plume Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher.
Born: 1694 - Died: 1778
Period:
18th century
17th century
Place of birth: France
France

Voltaire - Quotes

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.
Voltaire

Fear follows crime and is its punishment.
Voltaire

fear

It is vain for the coward to flee death follows close behind it is only by defying it that the brave escape.
Voltaire

death

It is forbidden to kill therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Voltaire

It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
Voltaire

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
Voltaire

beauty

Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
Voltaire

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
Voltaire

The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third.
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

life

We are all full of weakness and errors let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
Voltaire

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
Voltaire

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.
Voltaire

tolerance

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.
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

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.
Voltaire

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.
Voltaire

Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry always gets the best of the argument.
Voltaire

To hold a pen is to be at war.
Voltaire

When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
Voltaire

In this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.
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

The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.
Voltaire

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
Voltaire

Nature has always had more force than education.
Voltaire

We are rarely proud when we are alone.
Voltaire

The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.
Voltaire

Tears are the silent language of grief.
Voltaire

It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.
Voltaire

love

To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
Voltaire

Voltaire - Quotes

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