Why, since we are always complaining of our ills, are we constantly employed in redoubling them? — Voltaire Copy Share Image
“Always beware of turning religion into metaphysics: Morality is its essence.” — Voltaire Copy Share Image
The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important aims of philosophy. — Voltaire Copy Share Image
We offer up prayers to god only because we have made him after our own image. We treat him like a pasha,… — Voltaire Copy Share Image
When he who hears does not know what he who speaks means, and when he who speaks does not know what he… — Voltaire Copy Share Image
I read these words which are the sum of all moral philosophy, and which cut short all the disputes of the casuists:… — Voltaire Copy Share Image
The necessity of saying something, the embarrassment produced by the consciousness of having nothing to say, and the desire to exhibit ability,… — Voltaire Copy Share Image
All the persecutors declare against each other mortal war, while the philosopher, oppressed by them all, contents himself with pitying them. — Voltaire Copy Share Image
The system of Descartes... seemed to give a plausible reason for all those phenomena; and this reason seemed more just, as it… — Voltaire Copy Share Image
When one man speaks to another man who doesn't understand him, and when a man who's speaking no longer understands, it's metaphysics. — Voltaire Copy Share Image
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics. — Voltaire Copy Share Image
I acknowledge that four thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what our soul is. — Voltaire Copy Share Image
“Humanly speaking, let us define truth, while waiting for a better definition as a statement of facts as they are” — Voltaire Copy Share Image
Pleasantry is never good on serious points, because it always regards subjects in that point of view in which it is not… — Voltaire Copy Share Image
“I do not know by what power I think; but well I know that I should never have thought without the assistance… — Voltaire Copy Share Image
I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life… — 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
