Treatise on Toleration
A source page for quotes linked to Voltaire.
“Pleasure is the object, duty, and the goal of all rational creatures.”
“Those who can make people believe absurdities, can make people commit atrocities.”
“I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
“God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.”
“L'optimisme est la rage de soutenir que tout est bien quand on est mal.”
“Let us work without reasoning,' said Martin; 'it is the only way to make life endurable.”
“It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions.”
“Natural law teaches us to kill our neighbour, which how men behave the world over.”
“L'homme est né pour vivre dans les convulsions de l'inquiétude ou dans la léthargie de l'ennui.”
“Wisdom must yield to superstition's rules, Who arms with bigot zeal the hand of fools.”
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.”
“But to what end was the world created, then?" asked Candide. "To drive us mad," replied Martin.”
“It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.”
“on doit des égards aux vivants, on ne doit aux morts que la vérité.”
“The heart has its own reasons that reason can't understand.”
“Private misery is yet more cruel than public calamities.”
“It is a fact that there is no country in the world where love does not turn lovers into poets.”
“Don't think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.”
“Qui plume a, guerre a. Ce monde est un vaste temple dédié à la discorde.”
“Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.”
“Men employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.”
“Come! Your presence will give me my life back, or it will make me die of joy.”