Men are in general so tricky, so envious, and so cruel, that when we find one who is only weak, we are too happy.
VOLTAIRE, attributed, Day's Collacon
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.
VOLTAIRE, Notebooks
I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.
VOLTAIRE, attributed, More Random Walks in Science: An Anthology
Let us work without theorizing, 'tis the only way to make life endurable.
VOLTAIRE, Candide
A company of tyrants is inaccessible to all seductions.
VOLTAIRE, Dictionnaire philosophique
Discord is the great ill of mankind; and tolerance is the only remedy for it.
VOLTAIRE, Philosophical Dictionary
Toleration is the prerogative of humanity; we are all full of weaknesses and mistakes; let us reciprocally forgive ourselves. It is the first law of nature.
VOLTAIRE, A Treatise on Toleration and Other Essays
Broken words came first, then half-uttered questions and answers, followed by sighs, tears, and groans.
VOLTAIRE, Candide
Clever tyrants are never punished; they have always some slight shade of virtue: they support the laws before destroying them.
VOLTAIRE, Mérope
Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.
VOLTAIRE, letter to Bordes, January 10, 1769
Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
VOLTAIRE, A Philosophical Dictionary
The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.
VOLTAIRE, attributed, Best Thoughts of Best Thinkers
He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.
VOLTAIRE, A Philosophical Dictionary
Society therefore is as ancient as the world.
VOLTAIRE, A Philosophical Dictionary
People must have renounced, it seems to me, all natural intelligence to dare to advance that animals are but animated machines. ... Such people can never have observed with attention the character of animals, not to have distinguished among them the different voices of need, of suffering, of joy, of pain, of love, of anger, and of all their affections. It would be very strange that they should express so well what they could not feel.
VOLTAIRE, Traite de la Tolerance a l' Occasion de la Morte de Jean Calas, 1763
The hand of our parents traces on our feeble hearts those first characters to which example and time give firmness, and which perhaps God alone can efface.
VOLTAIRE, attributed, Day's Collacon
The opportunity to do mischief is found a hundred times a day, and that of doing good once a year.
VOLTAIRE, attributed, Day's Collacon
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation.
VOLTAIRE, attributed, Day's Collacon
All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.
VOLTAIRE, attributed, Day's Collacon
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.
VOLTAIRE, Candide
It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.
VOLTAIRE, Zadig
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
