Voltaire Quotes - Page 4

Tears are the silent language of grief.

Faith is believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

An opportunity fordoing an injury happens a hundred times a day, hut for doing good not once a year," says Zoroaster.

when man was put into the garden of eden, he was put there with the idea that he should work the land; and this proves that man was not born to be idle.

Ask a toad what is beauty? ... a female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head a large flat mouth a yellow belly and a brown back.

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

Imagine all contradictions, all possible incompatibilities--you will find them in the government, in the law-courts, in the churches, in the public shows of this droll nation.

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

Many are destined to reason wrongly others not to reason at all: and others to persecute those who do reason.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

At a great distance appeared with the same pomp the sheep of Thebes, the dog of Bubastis, the cat of Phoebe, the crocodile of Arsinoe, the goat of Mendes, and all the inferior gods of Egypt, who came to pay homage to the great ox, to the mighty Apis, as powerful as Isis, Osiris, and Horus, united together.In the midst of the demi-gods, forty priests carried an enormous basket, filled with sacred onions. These were, it is true, gods, but they resembled onions very much.("The White Bull")

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. It is not enough that a thing be possible for it to be believed.

The most beautiful of all emblems is that of God whom Timaeus of Locris describes under the image of "A circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."

I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.

Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.

The best is the enemy of good.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

Quand celui à qui l'on parle ne comprend pas et celui qui parle ne se comprend pas, c'est de la métaphysiqueWhen he to whom a person speaks does not understand, and he who speaks does not understand himself, that is metaphysics.

Men use thought only to justify their wrongdoings and speech only to conceal their thoughts.

What a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide."That is because I know what life is," said Martin.

A fondness for roving, for making a name for themselves in their onw country, and for boasting of what they had seen in their travels, was so strong in our two wanderers, that they resolved to be no longer happy; and demanded permission of the king to leave the country.

The punishment of criminals should be of use when a man is hanged he is good for nothing.

Men employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

mankind have a little corrupted nature, for they were not born wolves, and they have become wolves; God has given them neither cannon of four-and-twenty pounders, nor bayonets; and yet they have made cannon and bayonets to destroy one another.

Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.

What can be more absurd than choosing to carry a burden that one really wants to throw to the ground? To detest, and yet to strive to preserve our existence? To caress the serpent that devours us and hug him close to our bosoms tillhe has gnawed into our hearts?

The world embarrasses me and I cannot dream That this watch exists and has no watchmaker.

Perfect is the enemy of good.

A true god surely cannot have been born of a girl, nor died on the gibbet, nor be eaten in a piece of dough... [or inspired] books, filled with contradictions, madness, and horror.

Let us work without reasoning,' said Martin; 'it is the only way to make life endurable.

The superfluous is very necessary.

We are rarely proud when we are alone.