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

It is not known precisely where angels dwell—whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God’s pleasure that we should be informed of their abode.
Voltaire
Topics: Angels

In this country it’s a good thing to kill an admiral now and then to encourage the others.
Voltaire
Topics: Navy, Army

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

Work spares us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.
Voltaire
Topics: Work

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

Labor rids us of three great evils—irksomeness, vice, and poverty.
Voltaire
Topics: Labor

You must have the devil in you to succeed in the arts.
Voltaire
Topics: Evil

The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.
Voltaire
Topics: Creation

Complacency is a coin by the aid of which all the world can, for want of essential means, pay its club bill in society.—It is necessary, however, that it may lose nothing of its merits, to associate judgment and prudence with it.
Voltaire

The superfluous is very necessary.
Voltaire
Topics: Necessity

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.
Voltaire
Topics: Failures, Mistakes

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

The multiplicity of facts and writings is become so great that everything must soon be reduced to extracts.
Voltaire
Topics: Quotations

Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
Voltaire
Topics: World

Nothing is so common as to imitate one’s enemies, and to use their weapons.
Voltaire
Topics: Enemy

Paradise is Where I Am.
Voltaire
Topics: Serenity

One of the chief misfortunes of honest people is that they are cowardly.
Voltaire
Topics: Coward, Cowardice

All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.
Voltaire
Topics: God

Better is the enemy of good.
Voltaire
Topics: Acceptance, Realistic Expectations

History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up.
Voltaire
Topics: History

If there were only one religion in England there would be danger of despotism, if there were two, they would cut each other’s throats, but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness.
Voltaire

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
Voltaire
Topics: Adventure, Marriage

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.
Voltaire
Topics: Trouble

I do not like heroes; they make too much noise in the world. The more radiant their glory, the more odious they are.
Voltaire
Topics: Bravery, Heroes

Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.
Voltaire
Topics: Virtue, Vice

We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
Voltaire
Topics: Live, Living, Life, Expectations

Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
Voltaire

All styles are good except the boring kind.
Voltaire

I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.
Voltaire
Topics: Retirement

My life is a battle.
Voltaire
Topics: Nature, Life

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