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Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (November 21, 1694 - May 30, 1778) French writer, deist and philosopher; better known by his pen name Voltaire.
Sourced
- Virtue debases itself in justifying itself.
- Paradise is where I am.
- Source: Le Mondain (1736)
- Love truth, but pardon error.
- Source: Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)
- It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.
- In this best of all possible worlds… everything is for the best.
- Source: Candide (1759)
- Alternative: All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
- Notes: This was written in the spirit of irony. Voltaire was mocking Leibniz, who would have meant this literally (see the source for elaboration).
- There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
- Source: letter to Cardinal de Bernis (April 23, 1761)
- Quoi que vous fassiez, écrasez l'infâme, et aimez qui vous aime.
- Translation: Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing, and love those who love you.
- Letter to d'Alembert (November 28, 1762); This was written in reference to crushing superstition, and the words "écrasez l'infâme" ("Crush the Infamy") became a motto strongly identified with Voltaire.
- Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.
- Translation: The best is the enemy of good.
- Alternative: The perfect is the enemy of the good.
- Source: Dictionnaire Philosophique (1764)
- Notes: In other words, pursuing the "best" solution may result in doing less actual good than accepting a lesser solution; or it could also imply that the best makes that which is good seem to be worth less than it is.
- Common sense is not so common.
- Source: Dictionnaire Philosophique (1764) "Self-Love"
- I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O, Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
- Source: letter to M. Damilaville (May 16, 1767)
- I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
- Source: letter to d'Alembert (August 20, 1770)
- Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer.
- Translation: If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
- Source: Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs (November 10, 1770)
- I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.
- Source: written statement (February 28, 1778)
Attributed
- C'est une des superstitions de l'esprit humain d'avoir imaginé que la virginité pouvait être une vertu.
- Translation: It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.
- L'homme doit être heureux. Mais de quoi?
- Translation: Man must be happy. But because of what?
- Où est l'amitié, là est la patrie.
- Translation: Where lies friendship, there is one's homeland.
- A witty saying proves nothing.
- Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.
- Dated as a statement of 1767, but thus far without a specified source.[1])
- Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
- Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
- God created sex. Priests created marriage.
- God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
- History is the lie commonly agreed upon.
- If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent one.
- It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
- Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
- Originality is nothing but judicious plagiarism.
- May God defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies.
- Neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire
- Said about the Holy Roman Empire
- Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy; the mad daughter of a wise mother.
- The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.
- The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the diseases.
- To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid; you must also be well-mannered.
- Thought depends largely on the stomach. In spite of this, those with the best stomachs are not always the best thinkers.
- Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us [2]
- Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
Misattributions
- I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
- Though these words are regularly attributed to Voltaire, they were first used by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writing under the pseudonym of Stephen G Tallentyre in The Friends of Voltaire (1906), as a summation of Voltaire's attitude, based on statements in Essay on Tolerance where he asserts: "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privelege to do so too", but some believe its ultimate origin may lie in Voltaire's letter to M. le Riche (February 6, 1770): "Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write."
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