If you’re looking for the best collection of Voltaire quotes then look no further.
François-Marie Arouet, known by his pen name Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher.
He is considered one of France’s greatest writers from the Age of Enlightenment period, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, histories, and scientific expositions.
Voltaire’s best-known work is Candide. The satirical novella of the human condition published in 1759, was a best-seller from the moment it appeared and was translated into every possible language.
Voltaire was famous for his wit as well as his advocacy of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and a free and liberal society. His attitude toward religion and authorities was not well received in France and as a result, he was twice sentenced to prison and once to temporary exile to England.
Voltaire’s greatest desire as a philosopher was to change people’s way of thinking and behaving. Below you’ll find the most famous Voltaire quotes that will enlighten you and leave a lasting impression.
77 Best Voltaire Quotes
1. “Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.” – Voltaire
2. “Don’t think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.” – Voltaire
3. “No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” – Voltaire
4. “The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.” – Voltaire
5. “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” – Voltaire
6. “If you want to know who controls you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize.” – Voltaire
7. “The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.” – Voltaire
8. “Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.” – Voltaire
9. “It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.” – Voltaire
10. “The mirror is a worthless invention. The only way to truly see yourself is in the reflection of someone else’s eyes.” – Voltaire
11. “Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.” – Voltaire
12. “Common sense is not so common.” – Voltaire
13. “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” – Voltaire
14. “Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.” – Voltaire
15. “Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” – Voltaire
16. “The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom.” – Voltaire
17. “Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” – Voltaire
18. “Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.” – Voltaire
19. “Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.” – Voltaire
20th of 77 Voltaire Quotes
“Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.” – Voltaire
21. “Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.” – Voltaire
22. “The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.” – Voltaire
23. “Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.” – Voltaire
24. “Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.” – Voltaire
25. “The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” – Voltaire
26. “It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.” – Voltaire
27. “Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.” – Voltaire
28. “Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?” – Voltaire
29. “The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.” – Voltaire
30. “He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.” – Voltaire
31. “The more you read without thinking, the more you think you know a lot but the more you meditate, the more you see that you know very little.” – Voltaire
32. “We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies.” – Voltaire
33. “The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.” – Voltaire
34. “The biggest reward for a thing well done is to have done it.” – Voltaire
35. “The pursuit of what is true and the practice of what is good are the two most important objects of philosophy.” – Voltaire
36. “When it comes to money, everybody is of the same religion.” – Voltaire
37. “Every man can educate himself. It’s shameful to put one’s mind into the hands of those whom you wouldn’t entrust with your money. Dare to think for yourself.” – Voltaire
38. “Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.” – Voltaire
39. “Love is the most powerful of all passions.” – Voltaire
40th of 77 Voltaire Quotes
“God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.” – Voltaire
41. “Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day.” – Voltaire
42. “I’ve decided to be happy because it is good for my health.” – Voltaire
43. “The more a man knows, the less he talks.” – Voltaire
44. “Life is too short, time too valuable, to spend it on what is useless.” – Voltaire
45. “So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.” – Voltaire
46. “Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said.” – Voltaire
47. “The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech.” – Voltaire
48. “Doctors put drugs of which they know little into bodies of which they know less for diseases of which they know nothing at all.” – Voltaire
49. “The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.” – Voltaire
50. “Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value – zero.” – Voltaire
51. “The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third.” – Voltaire
52. “The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.” – Voltaire
53. “What is history? The lie that everyone agrees on.” – Voltaire
54. “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.” – Voltaire
55. “If one does not reflect, one thinks oneself master of everything; but when one does reflect, one realizes that one is master of nothing.” – Voltaire
56. “Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.” – Voltaire
57. “To really enjoy pleasures, you must know how to leave them.” – Voltaire
58. “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.” – Voltaire
59. “Is politics nothing other than the art of deliberately lying?” – Voltaire
60th of 77 Voltaire Quotes
“Present opportunities are not to be neglected; they rarely visit us twice.” – Voltaire
61. “Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.” – Voltaire
62. “There can be no happiness without good health.” – Voltaire
63. “History never repeats itself. Man always does.” – Voltaire
64. “It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.” – Voltaire
65. “Time is man’s most precious asset. All men neglect it; all regret the loss of it; nothing can be done without it.” – Voltaire
66. “Common sense is both more rare and more desirable in leaders than mere intelligence.” – Voltaire
67. “War is the greatest of all crimes; and yet there is no aggressor who does not color his crime with the pretext of justice.” – Voltaire
68. “Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.” – Voltaire
69. “True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.” – Voltaire
70. “Wherever my travels may lead, paradise is where I am.” – Voltaire
71. “Persistence with patience and prayer pays with profits, prosperity and peace of mind.” – Voltaire
72. “To achieve a goal, a dream, a wish, you must plan it out for success!” – Voltaire
73. “One should always aim at being interesting, rather than exact.” – Voltaire
74. “Everyone should be his own physician. We ought to assist, and not to force nature. Eat with moderation…Nothing is good for the body but what we can digest. What medicine can procure digestion? Exercise. What will recruit strength? Sleep.” – Voltaire
75. “One always begins with the simple, then comes the complex, and by superior enlightenment one often reverts in the end to the simple. Such is the course of human intelligence.” – Voltaire
76. “We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.” – Voltaire
77. “We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.” – Voltaire
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