One always begins with the simple, then comes the complex, and by superior enlightenment one often reverts in the end to the simple. Such is the course of human intelligence. — Voltaire Copy Share Image
“Speaking of Newton but also commenting more broadly on education and the Enlightenment: "I have seen a professor of mathematics only because he was great in his vocation, buried like a king who had done well by his subjects.” — Voltaire Copy Share Image
In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense. — Voltaire Copy Share Image
Fanaticism, to which men are so much inclined, has always served not only to render them more brutalized but more wicked. — Voltaire Copy Share Image
It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part, the rest are lost in the multitude. — Voltaire Copy Share Image
Meslier was the most singular phenomenon ever seen among all the meteors fatal to the Christian religion. — Voltaire Copy Share Image
Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror." "Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion… — Voltaire Copy Share Image
Being unable to make people more reasonable, I preferred to be happy away from them — Voltaire Copy Share Image
When his highness sends a ship to Egypt, does he trouble his head whether the mice on board are at their ease or not? — Voltaire Copy Share Image
Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively. — Voltaire Copy Share Image
God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well. — Voltaire Copy Share Image
