“The policy of man consists, at first, in endeavoring to arrive at a state equal to that of animals, whom nature has furnished with food, clothing, and shelter.”
Source: Voltaire – The Philosophical Works: Treatise On Tolerance, Philosophical Dictionary, Candide, Letters on England, Plato’s Dream, Dialogues, The Study of Nature, Ancient Faith and Fable, Zadig…: From the French writer, historian and philosopher, famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion and freedom of expression
“The spirit of property doubles a man's strength.”
Source: Delphi Collected Works of Voltaire (Illustrated)
“The instinct of a man is to pursue everything that flies from him, and to fly from all that pursue him.”
Source: Delphi Collected Works of Voltaire (Illustrated)
“The man who, in a fit of melancholy, kills himself today, would have wished to live had he waited a week.”
Source: VOLTAIRE – Premium Collection: Novels, Philosophical Writings, Historical Works, Plays, Poems & Letters (60+ Works in One Volume) - Illustrated: Candide, A Philosophical Dictionary, A Treatise on Toleration, Plato's Dream, The Princess of Babylon, Zadig, The Huron, Socrates, The Sage and the Atheist, Dialogues, Oedipus, Caesar…
“Heaven made virtue; man, the appearance.”
“I have seen men incapable of the sciences, but never any incapable of virtue.”
Source: Delphi Collected Works of Voltaire (Illustrated)
“Virtue between men is a commerce of good actions: he who has no part in this commerce must not be reckoned.”
Source: Delphi Collected Works of Voltaire (Illustrated)
“Men appear to prefer ruining one another's fortunes, and cutting each other's throats about a few paltry villages, to extending the grand means of human happiness.”
Source: A Philosophical Dictionary: From the French
“The man visited by ecstasies and visions, who takes dreams for realities is an enthusiast; the man who supports his madness with murder is a fanatic.”
“A fool is a person who guesses and gets it wrong, a clever man is one who guesses, regardless of time period, and gets it right.”
“Fanaticism, to which men are so much inclined, has always served not only to render them more brutalized but more wicked.”
“What will the preachers say? .. to teach men not to persecute men: for, while a few sanctimonious humbugs are burning a few fanatics, the earth opens and swallows up all alike.”
Source: The Portable Voltaire
“What is called happiness is an abstract idea, composed of various ideas of pleasure; for he who has but a moment of pleasure is not a happy man, in like manner that a moment of grief constitutes not a miserable one.”
Source: VOLTAIRE – Premium Collection: Novels, Philosophical Writings, Historical Works, Plays, Poems & Letters (60+ Works in One Volume) - Illustrated: Candide, A Philosophical Dictionary, A Treatise on Toleration, Plato's Dream, The Princess of Babylon, Zadig, The Huron, Socrates, The Sage and the Atheist, Dialogues, Oedipus, Caesar…
“Happiness is not the portion of man.”
Source: VOLTAIRE’S ROMANCES: 20+ Novels, Short Stories, Satires & Fables (Illustrated): Candide, Zadig, The Huron, Plato's Dream, Micromegas, The White Bull, The Princess of Babylon, The Sage and the Atheist, The Man of Forty Crowns, Bababec, Ancient Faith and Fable, The Study of Nature…
“The institution of religion exists only to keep mankind in order, and to make men merit the goodness of God by their virtue. Everything in a religion which does not tend towards this goal must be considered foreign or dangerous.”
Source: Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary
“Religion may be purified. This great work was begun two hundred years ago: but men can only bear light to come in upon them by degrees.”
Source: Letters addressed to his Highness the Prince of *****, containing comments on the writings of the most eminent authors, who have been accused of attacking the Christian Religion
“Let us therefore reject all superstition in order to become more human; but in speaking against fanaticism, let us not imitate the fanatics: they are sick men in delirium who want to chastise their doctors. Let us assuage their ills, and never embitter them, and let us pour drop by drop into their souls the divine balm of toleration, which they would reject with horror if it were offered to them all at once.”
“The son of God is the same as the son of man; the son of man is the same as the son of God. God, the father, is the same as Christ, the son; Christ, the son, is the same as God, the father. This language may appear confused to unbelievers, but Christians will readily understand it.”
“I never approved either the errors of his book, or the trivial truths he so vigorously laid down. I have, however, stoutly taken his side when absurd men have condemned him for these same truths.”
“There are barbarians who seize this dog, who so prodigiously surpasses man in friendship, and nail him down to a table, and dissect him alive to show you the mezaraic veins... Answer me, Machinist, has Nature really arranged all the springs of feeling in this animal to the end that he might not feel? Has he nerves that he may be incapable of suffering?”
“God created women only to tame men.”
Source: The Whole Prose Romances of François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire: The Huron; or, The pupil of nature
“Man can have only a certain number of teeth, hair and ideas; there comes a time when he necessarily loses his teeth, hair and ideas.”
“Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror." "Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world." "Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense." "If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.”
“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”
“A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do.”
“Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.”
“All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.”
“All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.”
“Man is free at the instant he wants to be.”
“It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.”
Source: Candide: and other writings
“Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.”
“The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.”
Source: A Philosophical Dictionary: From the French
“Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.”
“Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.”
“Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.”
“Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because there is nothing to be gained by him.”
“There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.”
“I also know that we must cultivate our garden. For when man was put in the Garden of Eden, he was put there ut operaretur eum, to work; which proves that man was not born for rest.”
“In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.”
Source: Voltaire – The Philosophical Works: Treatise On Tolerance, Philosophical Dictionary, Candide, Letters on England, Plato’s Dream, Dialogues, The Study of Nature, Ancient Faith and Fable, Zadig…: From the French writer, historian and philosopher, famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion and freedom of expression
“I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.”
“Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.”
“It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part.”
Source: VOLTAIRE – Premium Collection: Novels, Philosophical Writings, Historical Works, Plays, Poems & Letters (60+ Works in One Volume) - Illustrated: Candide, A Philosophical Dictionary, A Treatise on Toleration, Plato's Dream, The Princess of Babylon, Zadig, The Huron, Socrates, The Sage and the Atheist, Dialogues, Oedipus, Caesar…
“Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all.”
“Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.”
“Now, now my good man, this is no time to be making enemies." (Voltaire on his deathbed in response to a priest asking him that he renounce Satan.)”
“When a man is in love, jealous, and just whipped by the Inquisition, he is no longer himself.”
Source: Voltaire's Candide
“The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.”
“And ask each passenger to tell his story, and if there is one of them all who has not cursed his existence many times, and said to himself over and over again that he was the most miserable of men, I give you permission to throw me head-first into the sea.”
“"You're a bitter man," said Candide.
"That's because I've lived," said Martin.”
“It requires twenty years for a man to rise from the vegetable state in which he is within his mother's womb, and from the pure animal state which is the lot of his early childhood, to the state when the maturity of reason begins to appear. It has required thirty centuries to learn a little about his structure. It would need eternity to learn something about his soul. It takes an instant to kill him.”
Source: The Portable Voltaire
