Quotes By Voltaire

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

Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

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.

All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.

To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.

I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.

The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.

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.

We are rarely proud when we are alone.

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

Everything's fine today, that is our illusion.

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.

Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.

The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

The best is the enemy of the good.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

Tears are the silent language of grief.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.