Voltaire

Find the best quotes, maxims and aphorisms of Voltaire

Biography : François-Marie Arouet, known by his nom de plume Voltaire was a French writer, historian, and philosopher, a leading figure of the Enlightenment, famous for defending freedom, tolerance, and for criticizing religious fanaticism and social injustice.
Born: 1694 - Died: 1778
Period:
18th century
17th century
Place of birth: France
France

France

Voltaire - Quotes

Business is the salt of life.
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life

Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors but they are seldom or ever inventors.
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In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
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To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
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truth

The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.
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God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.
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I hate women because they always know where things are.
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How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child's board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.
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If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
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The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
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Common sense is not so common.
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If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
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Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.
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tolerance

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.
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Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.
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reputation

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.
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It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
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enemy

The best is the enemy of the good.
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I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
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What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
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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.
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All styles are good except the tiresome kind.
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Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
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love

Of men who reach my tale of years
Who least has cause to make his moan?
He who has learnt to banish fears,
Who lives and dies unknown.
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