Voltaire

From BillionQuotes

François-Marie Arouet (November 21, 1694 - May 30, 1778) French writer, deist and philosopher; better known by his pen name Voltaire.

Image:Voltaire2.jpg

Voltaire

[edit]

Sourced

Virtue debases itself in justifying itself.
- Original: La vertu s'avilit à se justifier.
- Source: Oedipe, act II, scene IV (1718)

Quite a heavy weight, a name too quickly famous.
- Original: C'est un poids bien pesant qu'un nom trop tôt fameux.
- Source: La Henriade, chant troisième, l.41 (1722)

Man is free at the instant he wants to be.
- Original: L'homme est libre au moment qu'il veut l'être.
- Source Brutus, act II, scene I (1730)

Men are equal; it is not birth
But virtue that makes the difference.
- Original: Les mortels sont égaux; ce n'est pas la naissance,
  C'est la seule vertu qui fait la différence.
- Source: Eriphile, act II, scene I (1732); these lines were also used in Mahomet, act I, scene IV (1741)

Almost everything is imitation... The most original writers borrowed from one another.
- Original: Ainsi presque tout est imitation. L’idée des Lettres persanes est prise de celle de l’Espion turc. Le Boiardo a imité le Pulci, l’Arioste a imité le Boiardo. Les esprits les plus originaux empruntent les uns des autres.
- Source: "Lettre XII: sur M. Pope et quelques autres poètes fameux," Lettres philosophiques (1733)

What we find in books is like the fire in our hearths. We fetch it from our neighbor's, we kindle it at home, we communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.
- Original: Il en est des livres comme du feu de nos foyers; on va prendre ce feu chez son voisin, on l’allume chez soi, on le communique à d’autres, et il appartient à tous.
- Source: "Lettre XII: sur M. Pope et quelques autres poètes fameux," Lettres philosophiques' (1733)

Paradise is where I am.
- Original: Le paradis terrestre est où je suis.
- Source: Le Mondain (1736)

Love truth, but pardon error.
- Original: Aime la vérité, mais pardonne à l'erreur.
- Source: "Deuxième discours: de la liberté," Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)

Use, do not abuse... Neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
- Original: Usez, n’abusez point; le sage ainsi l’ordonne.
  Je fuis également Épictète et Pétrone.
  L’abstinence ou l’excès ne fit jamais d’heureux.
- Source: "Cinquième discours: sur la nature de plaisir," Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.
- Original: Le secret d'ennuyer est celui de tout dire.
- Source: "Sixième discours: sur la nature de l'homme," Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)

Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
- Original: Qui sert bien son pays n'a pas besoin d'aïeux.
- Source: Mérope, act I, scene III (1743)

Clever tyrants are never punished.
- Original: Les habiles tyrans ne sont jamais punis.
- Source: Mérope, act V, scene V (1743)

It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.
- Original: Il vaut mieux hasarder de sauver un coupable que de condamner un innocent.
- Source: Zadig (1747)

To hold a pen is to be at war.
- Original: Qui plume a, guerre a.
- Source: letter to Jeanne-Grâce Bosc du Bouchet, comtesse d'Argental (October 4, 1748)
- This remark also appears in a letter to Marie-Louise Denis (May 22, 1752): To hold a pen is to be at war. This world is one vast temple consecrated to discord [Qui plume a, guerre a. Ce monde est un vaste temple dédié à la discorde].

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.
- Original: C'est une des superstitions de l'esprit humain d'avoir imaginé que la virginité pouvait être une vertu.
- Source: Notebooks (c.1735-c.1750)
- Note: This quotation and the three that follow directly below are from the so-called Leningrad Notebook, also known as Le Sottisier; it is one of several posthumously published notebooks of Voltaire.

To pray to God is to flatter oneself that with words one can alter nature.
- Original: Prier Dieu c'est se flatter qu'avec des paroles on changera toute la nature.
- Source: Notebooks (c.1735-c.1750)

We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one.
- Original: Nous cherchons tous le bonheur, mais sans savoir où, comme les ivrognes qui cherchent leur maison, sachant confusément qu'ils en ont une.
- Source: Notebooks (c.1735-c.1750)
- A variation on this remark can be found in the same notebook: Men who look for happiness are like drunkards who cannot find their house but know that they have one [Les hommes qui cherchent le bonheur sont comme des ivrognes qui ne peuvent trouver leur maison, mais qui savent qu'ils en ont une].

If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor.
- Original: Si Dieu nous a fait à son image, nous le lui avons bien rendu.
- Source: Notebooks (c.1735-c.1750)

It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.
- Original: Il est dangereux d’avoir raison dans des choses où des hommes accrédités ont tort.
- Source: "Catalogue pour la plupart des écrivains français qui ont paru dans Le Siècle de Louis XIV, pour servir à l'histoire littéraire de ce temps," Le Siècle de Louis XIV (1752)
- Note: The most frequently attributed variant of this quote is: It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.
- Original: Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain n'était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire.
- Source: Essai sur l'histoire generale et sur les moeurs et l'espirit des nations, Chapter 70 (1756)

In this best of all possible worlds... everything is for the best.
- Alternative: All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
- Original: Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles.
- Source: Candide (1759), ch. I
- Notes: This was written in the spirit of irony. Voltaire was mocking Leibniz, who would have meant this literally (see the source for elaboration).

Fools admire everything in an esteemed author. I read only for myself; I like only what is useful to me.
- Original: Les sots admirent tout dans un auteur estimé. Je ne lis que pour moi; je n'aime que ce qui est à mon usage.
- Source: Candide (1759), ch. XXV

Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.
- Original: Le travail éloigne de nous trois grands maux: l'ennui, le vice et le besoin.
- Source: Candide (1759), ch. XXX

We must cultivate our garden.
- Original: Il faut cultiver notre jardin.
- Source: Candide (1759), ch. XXX

Opinions have caused more ills than the plague or earthquakes on this little globe of ours.
- Original: Les opinions ont plus causé de maux sur ce petit globe que la peste et les tremblements de terre.
- Source: letter to Élie Bertrand (January 5, 1759)

When we hear news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
- Original: Il faut toujours en fait de nouvelles attendre le sacrement de la confirmation.
- Source: letter to Charles-Augustin Ferriol, comte d'Argental (August 28, 1760)

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
- Source: letter to François-Joachim de Pierre, cardinal de Bernis (April 23, 1761)

Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing, and love those who love you.
- Original: Quoi que vous fassiez, écrasez l'infâme, et aimez qui vous aime.
- Source: letter to Jean le Rond d'Alembert (November 28, 1762); This was written in reference to crushing superstition, and the words "écrasez l'infâme" ("Crush the Infamy") became a motto strongly identified with 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.
- Original: La superstition est à la religion ce que l’astrologie est à l’astronomie, la fille très folle d’une mère très sage. Ces deux filles ont longtemps subjugué toute la terre.
- Source: "Whether it is useful to maintain the people in superstition," Treatise on Toleration (1763)

Morality is everywhere the same for all men, therefore it comes from God; sects differ, therefore they are the work of men.
- Original: La morale est la même chez tous les hommes, donc elle vient de Dieu; le culte est différent, donc il est l’ouvrage des hommes.
- Source: "Atheist," Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)

Do not most of us resemble that old general of ninety who, having come upon some young officers debauching some girls, said to them angrily: "Gentlemen, is that the example I give you?"
- Original: Ne ressemblons-nous pas presque tous à ce vieux général de quatre-vingt-dix ans, qui, ayant rencontré de jeunes officiers qui faisaient un peu de désordre avec des filles, leur dit tout en colère: "Messieurs, est-ce là l’exemple que je vous donne?"
- Source: "Character," Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)

People sometimes say: "Common sense is quite rare."
- Original: On dit quelquefois: "Le sens commun est fort rare."
- Source: "Common Sense," Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1765)
- Note: The better known variant of this quote is "Common sense is not so common," said to be in the Philosophical Dictionary entry "Self-Love"; but it is not found there.

All men would then be necessarily equal, if they were without needs. It is the poverty connected with our species which subordinates one man to another. It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.
- Original: Tous les hommes seraient donc nécessairement égaux, s’ils étaient sans besoins. La misère attachée à notre espèce subordonne un homme à un autre homme: ce n’est pas l’inégalité qui est un malheur réel, c’est la dépendance.
- Source: "Equality," Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)

Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one's country is to wish harm to one's neighbors.
- Original: Telle est donc la condition humaine que souhaiter la grandeur de son pays, c’est souhaiter du mal à ses voisins.
- Source: "Fatherland," Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)

Prejudice is an opinion without judgement.
- Original: Le préjugé est une opinion sans jugement.
- Source: "Prejudices," Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)

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.
- Original: Qu’est-ce que la tolérance? c’est l’apanage de l’humanité. Nous sommes tous pétris de faiblesses et d’erreurs; pardonnons-nous réciproquement nos sottises, c’est la première loi de la nature.
- Source: "Tolerance," Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)

A company of solemn tyrants is impervious to all seductions.
- Original: Une compagnie de graves tyrans est inaccessible à toutes les séductions.
- Source: "Tyranny," Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)

Formerly there were those who said: You believe things that are incomprehensible, inconsistent, impossible because we have commanded you to believe them; go then and do what is unjust because we command it. Such people show admirable reasoning. Truly, whoever is able to make you absurd is able to make you unjust. If the God-given understanding of your mind does not resist a demand to believe what is impossible, then you will not resist a demand to do wrong to that God-given sense of justice in your heart. As soon as one faculty of your soul has been dominated, other faculties will follow as well. And from this derives all those crimes of religion which have overrun the world.
- Original: Il y a eu des gens qui ont dit autrefois: Vous croyez des choses incompréhensibles, contradictoires, impossibles, parce que nous vous l’avons ordonné; faites donc des choses injustes parce que nous vous l’ordonnons. Ces gens-là raisonnaient à merveille. Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde est en droit de vous rendre injuste. Si vous n’opposez point aux ordres de croire l’impossible l’intelligence que Dieu a mise dans votre esprit, vous ne devez point opposer aux ordres de malfaire la justice que Dieu a mise dans votre coeur. Une faculté de votre âme étant une fois tyrannisée, toutes les autres facultés doivent l’être également. Et c’est là ce qui a produit tous les crimes religieux dont la terre a été inondée.
- Source: Questions sur les miracles (1765)

Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
- Original: Le doute n'est pas une condition agréable, mais la certitude est absurde.
- Source: letter to Frederick II of Prussia (April 6, 1767)

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous!" And God granted it.
- Original: J'ai toujours fait une prière à Dieu, qui est fort courte. La voici: Mon Dieu, rendez nos ennemis bien ridicules! Dieu m'a exaucé.
- Source: letter to Étienne-Noel Damilaville (May 16, 1767)

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
- Original: En effet, l'histoire n'est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs.
- Source: L'Ingénu, ch.10 (1767)

A witty saying proves nothing.
- Original: Un bon mot ne prouve rien.
- Source: Le dîner du comte de Boulainvilliers (1767)

It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions.
- Original: On dit que Dieu est toujours pour les gros bataillons.
- Source: letter to François-Louis-Henri Leriche (February 6, 1770)
- Note: In his Notebooks (c.1735-c.1750), Voltaire wrote: God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.

Thought depends largely on the stomach. In spite of this, those with the best stomachs are not always the best thinkers.
- Original: C'est une plaisante chose que la pensée dépende absolument de l'estomac, et malgré cela les meilleurs estomacs ne soient pas les meilleurs penseurs.
- Source: letter to Jean le Rond d'Alembert (August 20, 1770)

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
- Original: Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer.
- Source: Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs (November 10, 1770)

Money is always to be found when men are to be sent to the frontiers to be destroyed: when the object is to preserve them, it is no longer so.
- Original: On en trouve [l'argent] toujours quand il s’agit d’aller faire tuer des hommes sur la frontière: il n’y en a plus quand il faut les sauver.
- Source: "Charity," Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770)

Virtue supposes liberty, as the carrying of a burden supposes active force. Under coercion there is no virtue, and without virtue there is no religion. Make a slave of me, and I shall be no better for it. Even the sovereign has no right to use coercion to lead men to religion, which by its nature supposes choice and liberty. My thought is no more subject to authority than is sickness or health.
- Original: La vertu suppose la liberté, comme le transport d’un fardeau suppose la force active. Dans la contrainte point de vertu, et sans vertu point de religion. Rends-moi esclave, je n’en serai pas meilleur. Le souverain même n’a aucun droit d’employer la contrainte pour amener les hommes à la religion, qui suppose essentiellement choix et liberté. Ma pensée n’est pas plus soumise à l’autorité que la maladie ou la santé.
- Source: "Canon Law: Ecclesiastical Ministry," Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1771)

Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
- Original: Le divorce est probablement de la même date à peu près que le mariage. Je crois pourtant que le mariage est de quelques semaines plus ancien.
- Source: "Divorce," Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1771)

It requires twenty years for a man to rise from the vegetable state in which he is within his mother's womb, and from the pure animal state which is the lot of his early childhood, to the state when the maturity of reason begins to appear. It has required thirty centuries to learn a little about his structure. It would need eternity to learn something about his soul. It takes an instant to kill him.
- Original: Il faut vingt ans pour mener l’homme de l’état de plante où il est dans le ventre de sa mère, et de l’état de pur animal, qui est le partage de sa première enfance, jusqu’à celui où la maturité de la raison commence à poindre. Il a fallu trente siècles pour connaître un peu sa structure. Il faudrait l’éternité pour connaître quelque chose de son âme. Il ne faut qu’un instant pour le tuer.
- Source: "Man: General Reflection on Man," Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1771)

In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
- Original: En général, l’art du gouvernement consiste à prendre le plus d’argent qu’on peut à une grande partie des citoyens, pour le donner à une autre partie.
- Source: "Money," Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770-1774)

Nothing is so common as to imitate one's enemies, and to use their weapons.
- Original: Rien n’est si ordinaire que d’imiter ses ennemis, et d’employer leurs armes.
- Source: "Oracles," Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770-1774)

The Eternal has his designs from all eternity. If prayer is in accord with his immutable wishes, it is quite useless to ask of him what he has resolved to do. If one prays to him to do the contrary of what he has resolved, it is praying that he be weak, frivolous, inconstant; it is believing that he is thus, it is to mock him. Either you ask him a just thing, in which case he must do it, the thing being done without your praying to him for it, and so to entreat him is then to distrust him; or the thing is unjust, and then you insult him. You are worthy or unworthy of the grace you implore: if worthy, he knows it better than you; if unworthy, you commit another crime by requesting what is undeserved.
In a word, we only pray to God because we have made him in our image. We treat him like a pasha, like a sultan whom one may provoke or appease.
- Original: L’Éternel a ses desseins de toute éternité. Si la prière est d’accord avec ses volontés immuables, il est très inutile de lui demander ce qu’il a résolu de faire. Si on le prie de faire le contraire de ce qu’il a résolu, c’est le prier d’être faible, léger, inconstant; c’est croire qu’il soit tel, c’est se moquer de lui. Ou vous lui demandez une chose juste; en ce cas il la doit, et elle se fera sans qu’on l’en prie; c’est même se défier de lui que lui faire instance ou la chose est injuste, et alors on l’outrage. Vous êtes digne ou indigne de la grâce que vous implorez: si digne, il le sait mieux que vous; si indigne, on commet un crime de plus en demandant ce qu’on ne mérite pas.
  En un mot, nous ne faisons des prières à Dieu que parce que nous l’avons fait à notre image. Nous le traitons comme un bacha, comme un sultan qu’on peut irriter ou apaiser.
- Source: "Prayers," Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770-1774)

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
- Original: Il est défendu de tuer; tout meurtrier est puni, à moins qu’il n’ait tué en grande compagnie, et au son des trompettes.
- Source: "Rights," Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1771)

The best is the enemy of the good.
- Alternative: The perfect is the enemy of the good.
- Original: Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.
- Source: La Bégueule (1772)
- Note: This quotation also appears in Italian (Il meglio è l'inimico del bene) in the Questions sur l'Encyclopédie article, "Dramatic Art" (1764)

I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
- Original: J'aime fort la vérité, mais je n'aime point du tout le martyre.
- Source: letter to Jean le Rond d'Alembert (February 8,1776)

I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.
- Source: written statement (February 28, 1778)

Let the punishments of criminals be useful. A hanged man is good for nothing; a man condemned to public works still serves the country, and is a living lesson.
- Original: Que les supplices des criminels soient utiles. Un homme pendu n’est bon à rien, et un homme condamné aux ouvrages publics sert encore la patrie, et est une leçon vivante.
- Source: "Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws," Dictionnaire philosophique (1785-1789)
- Note: The Dictionnaire philosophique was a posthumously published collection of articles combining the Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (published under various editions and titles from 1764-1777), the Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (published from 1770-1774), articles written for the Encyclopédie and the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, the manuscript known as l'Opinion sur l'alphabet and a number of previously published miscellaneous articles.

Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
- Original: Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde.
- Source: "Liberty of the Press," Dictionnaire philosophique (1785-1789)

All philosophical sects have run aground on the reef of moral and physical ill. It only remains for us to confess that God, having acted for the best, had not been able to do better.
- Original: Toutes les sectes des philosophes ont échoué contre l’écueil du mal physique et moral. Il ne reste que d’avouer que Dieu ayant agi pour le mieux n’a pu agir mieux.
- Source: "Power, Omnipotence," Dictionnaire philosophique (1785-1789)

Man ought to be content, it is said; but with what?
- Original: L'homme doit être content, dit-on; mais de quoi?
- Source: Pensées, Remarques, et Observations de Voltaire; ouvrage posthume (1802)
- Note: This is from a volume of posthumously published "Thoughts, remarks and observations" believed to be by Voltaire. [1]

The public is a ferocious beast: one must chain it up or flee from it.
- Original: Le public est une bête féroce: il faut l’enchaîner ou la fuir.
- Source: letter to Mademoiselle Quinault, quoted in Charles Sainte-Beuve, "Lettres inédites de Voltaire," Causeries de Lundi (October 20, 1856) [2]; an English translation can be found on this page: [3]

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.
- Source: Essay on Tolerance

The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him.
- Source: Letter

[edit]

Attributed

Où est l'amitié, là est la patrie.
- Translation: Where lies friendship, there is one's homeland.

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
- Voltaire wrote: A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do. [Un ministre est excusable du mal qu’il fait, lorsque le gouvernail de l’État est forcé dans sa main par les tempêtes; mais dans le calme il est coupable de tout le bien qu’il ne fait pas.] - Le Siècle de Louis XIV, ch. VI: "État de la France jusqu’à la mort du cardinal Mazarin en 1661" (1752)

God created sex. Priests created marriage.

History is the lie commonly agreed upon.

Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.

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.

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

May God defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies.

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

Now is no time to be making new enemies. (When asked on his deathbed by a priest to renounce the devil and turn to God.)

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.

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

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid; you must also be well-mannered.

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

I decided to be happy, it's excellent for your health.
- Original: J'ai décidé d'être heureux, c'est excellent pour la santé.

[edit]

Misattributions

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
- Source: "Nowadays what isn't worth saying is sung" [Aujourd'hui ce qui ne vaut pas la peine d'être dit, on le chante]-- Pierre de Beaumarchais, Le Barbier de Séville (1775), act II, scene I.
- In George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, act II, there is the following dialogue:
  TANNER: Let me remind you that Voltaire said that what was too silly to be said could be sung.
  STRAKER. It wasn't Voltaire: it was Bow Mar Shay.
  TANNER. I stand corrected: Beaumarchais of course.
- This quote has also been attributed to Joseph Addison. In The Spectator, March 21, 1711 Addison wrote of "an establish'd Rule, which is receiv'd as such to this Day, That nothing is capable of being well set to Musick, that is not Nonsense."

Business is the salt of life.
- This is a proverb which can be found in Robert Codrington's "Youth's Behaviour, Second Part" (1672) and in Thomas Fuller's "Gnomologia" (1732).

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
- For a discussion of this quotation, which is uncertain in origin but was quoted long before Voltaire, see the following: [4]

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
- Source: "Creator— A comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh." - H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy, ch. 30 (1949)

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
- Though these words are regularly attributed to Voltaire, they were first used by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writing under the pseudonym of Stephen G Tallentyre in The Friends of Voltaire (1906), as a summation of Voltaire's beliefs on freedom of thought and expression.
- Another possible source for the quote was proposed by Norbert Guterman, editor of "A Book of French Quotations," who noted a letter to M. le Riche (February 6, 1770) in which Voltaire is quoted as saying: "Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write." This remark, however, does not appear in the letter.