Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Voltaire (French Philosopher, Author)

François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778,) known by his pseudonym Voltaire, was the great French philosopher who towered over the Enlightenment of the 18th century as its guiding intellectual presence. His influence continued long after his death as a defining force in the American and French Revolutions.

Voltaire was a brilliant, acerbic, and prolific polemicist. He left behind some 15 million written words in every literary form—plays, poems, novels, letters, and essays. His subjects included philosophy, science, travel, religion, and civil liberties. By the time of his death, Voltaire’s astonishing literary output and his crafty media manipulation had made him the most famous writer in the world.

Born in a prosperous middle-class Parisian family and educated by the Paris Jesuits, Voltaire was opposed to the deceit, superstition, and fanaticism he saw in the Catholic Church and argued passionately for Deism. Even today, Voltaire’s opinions on religion, tolerance, and human rights seem remarkably contemporary and stimulating.

Voltaire regularly used his works to condemn intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day. His notable works are his philosophical novels, particularly Zadig ou la Destinée (1747; Zadig, or The Book of Fate) and Candide, ou l’Optimisme (1759.) His best-known work, Candide, one of French literature’s most enduring classics, follows the adventures of a young man, Candide, and his mentor, the philosopher Pangloss. This satirical short story is an extraordinary synthesis of Voltaire’s lifelong condemnation of falsity and hypocrisy; his targets include divine providence, lousy literature, extremist religion, and the vanity of kings and politicians.

Voltaire’s scientific works include Éléments de la philosophie de Newton (1738; The Elements of Newton’s Philosophy, 1738.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Voltaire

When he that speaks, and he to whom he speaks, neither of them understand what is meant, that is metaphysics.
—Voltaire

Providence has given us hope and sleep as a compensation for the many cares of life.
—Voltaire
Topics: Caring

In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
—Voltaire
Topics: News

England has 42 religions and only two sauces.
—Voltaire
Topics: Britain

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
—Voltaire
Topics: Pleasure, Reality, Illusion, One liners

A multitude of laws in a country is like a great number of physicians, a sign of weakness and malady.
—Voltaire
Topics: Laws, Law

If you wish to converse with me, define your terms.
—Voltaire
Topics: Communication

That sovereign is a tyrant who knows no law but his own caprice.
—Voltaire
Topics: Tyranny

The first who was king was a fortunate soldier: Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
—Voltaire
Topics: Ancestors, Soldiers

Men are in general so tricky, so envious, and so cruel, that when we find one who is only weak, we are happy.
—Voltaire
Topics: Weakness

Prejudice is the reason of fools.
—Voltaire
Topics: Prejudice

All styles are good except the boring kind.
—Voltaire

I hate women because they always know where things are.
—Voltaire
Topics: Women

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
—Voltaire
Topics: Singing

Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.
—Voltaire

In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
—Voltaire
Topics: Government, Taxes, Taxation

Let us work without theorizing, ‘Tis the only way to make life endurable.
—Voltaire
Topics: Theory, Assumptions

The secret of making one’s self tiresome, is, not to know when to stop.
—Voltaire
Topics: Bores

The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.
—Voltaire
Topics: Pride

If there had been a censorship of the press in Rome we should have had today neither Horace nor Juvenal, nor the philosophical writings of Cicero.
—Voltaire
Topics: Censorship

He who doesn’t have the spirit of his time, has all its misery.
—Voltaire
Topics: Spirituality, Spirit

It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
—Voltaire
Topics: Justice

Pleasure has its time; so too, has wisdom. Make love in thy youth, and in old age attend to thy salvation.
—Voltaire
Topics: Pleasure

Pleasure is the object, duty and the goal of all rational creatures.
—Voltaire
Topics: Pleasure, Goals, Happiness, Aspirations

It is new fancy rather than taste which produces so many new fashions.
—Voltaire
Topics: Fashion

I should stop myself from dying if a good joke or a good idea occurred to me.
—Voltaire
Topics: Jokes

I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.
—Voltaire
Topics: Superstition

A woman can keep one secret – the secret of her age.
—Voltaire
Topics: Secrets

[History is] little else than a long succession of useless cruelties.
—Voltaire
Topics: History

The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors.
—Voltaire
Topics: Opinion, Opinions

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