Quotes by Voltaire
"I have no more than twenty acres of ground," he replied, "the whole of which I cultivate myself with the help of my children; and our labor keeps off from us the three great evils - boredom, vice, and want."
Voltaire
I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it.
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
Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all.
Voltaire
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
Voltaire
Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.
Voltaire
Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire
Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.
Voltaire
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
Voltaire
History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up.
Voltaire
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
Voltaire
Tears are the silent language of grief.
Voltaire
History supplies little beyond a list of those who have accommodated themselves with the property of others.
Voltaire
Exaggeration, the inseparable companion of greatness.
Voltaire
Historians are gossips who tease the dead.
Voltaire
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.
Voltaire