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Voltaire
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
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Voltaire - Quotes




I have decided to be happy because it's good for my health.
Voltaire - Letter to the Abbé Trublet / 



I have decided to be happy because it's good for my health.

Image attribution  Background photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash





Love truth, but pardon error.
Voltaire - Discourse in Verse on Man - on Freedom / 



Love truth, but pardon error.

Image attribution  Background photo by Neil Thomas on Unsplash





Let us read and let us dance—these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
Voltaire - Philosophical Dictionary / 






What is tolerance? It is the endowment of humanity. We are all steeped in weakness and error; let us forgive each other our stupidities, that is the first law of nature.
Voltaire - Philosophical Dictionary / 






Without the art of living knowledge nought avails.
Voltaire - Épîtres / 






The best is the enemy of good.
Voltaire - Philosophical Dictionary / 



The best is the enemy of good.




All the splendor in the world is not worth a good friend.
Voltaire / 






We must cultivate our garden.
Voltaire - Candide ou l'Optimisme / 



We must cultivate our garden.

Image attribution  Background photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash





It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.
Voltaire - Zadig, or The Book of Fate / 






May all men remember that they are brothers!
Voltaire - Treatise on Tolerance / 






Whoever you are, here is your master:
He is, was or will be.

Voltaire - Poésies mêlées / 






Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.
Voltaire - Questions sur les Miracles / 






Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
Voltaire - Philosophical Dictionary / 






The universe confounds me! I cannot imagine that such a ‘clock’ can exist without there being a Clockmaker.
Voltaire - Les cabales / 






I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire ? - Quotation of uncertain origin / 






Another cause of our poverty lies in our new needs.
Voltaire - The Man with Forty Crowns / 






It is not love we should have painted blind, but self-love.
Voltaire / 






Man is free at the instant he wants to be.
Voltaire / 






Society therefore is an ancient as the world.
Voltaire / 






What man is without fault, and what king without weakness?
Voltaire - Brutus / 






Virtue is in the heart, and nowhere else.
Voltaire - Les Lettres d'Amabed / 






The secret of being boring is to tell everything.
Voltaire / 






Time softens everything.
Voltaire - L'Ingénu / 






Paradise on earth is where I am.
Voltaire / 






One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say.
Voltaire / 






The right to say and print what we think is the right of every free man, who cannot be deprived of it without exercising the most odious tyranny.
Voltaire - Questions sur les Miracles / 






History is just the portrayal of crimes and misfortunes.
Voltaire - L'Ingénu / 






Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.
Voltaire - Candide ou l'Optimisme / 






Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him.
Voltaire






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










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