Voltaire

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.
Voltaire - on his deathbed in response to a priest asking that he renounce Satan
Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.
Voltaire - Candide, 1759
Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
Voltaire - Letter to Frederick, 1767
As long as there are fools and rascals, there will be religions.

All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.

A witty saying proves nothing.
Voltaire - when asked on his deathbed to forswear Satan.
This is no time to make new enemies.

Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.

Canada: A few acres of snow.

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.

I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to men that the inventors of syllogisms. He who imagined a ship towers considerably above him who imagined innate ideas.

A witty saying proves nothing.

Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were of course exterminated.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

A witty saying proves nothing.

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

Regimen is superior to medicine.

Prejudice is opinion without judgement.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

The superfluous is very necessary.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

When its a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.

God created sex. Priests created marriage.

Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less in human beings of whom they know nothing.
Voltaire - Candide
All is for the best in the best of all possible ways.

A witty saying proves nothing.

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.

This poem will never reach its destination.

A witty saying proves nothing.
Voltaire - Essay on Tolerance
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid; you must also be well-mannered.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.
Voltaire - (Attributed); originated in "The Friends of Voltaire", 1906, by S. G. Tallentyre (Evelyn Beatrice Hall)
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

I was never ruined but twice: once when I lost a lawsuit, and once when I won one.

May God defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies.

Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.

"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.

I have lost the half of myself ? a soul for which mine was made.

When it is a question of money, everyone is of the same religion.

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Love truth, and pardon error.

There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics... We repeat, there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer.

Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.

We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
Voltaire - Candide
[Optimism is] the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.

The secret of being boring is to say everything.

Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

The public is a ferocious beast -- one must either chain it up or flee from it.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one.

A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live.

True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten oneself and others.

England has forty-two religions and only two sauces.

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
Voltaire - Letter (1769)
The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him.

The art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of the citizens to give to the other.

The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman nor an Empire.

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

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.

Common sense is not so common.

If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

Once the people begin to reason, all is lost.

It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge

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 far better to be silent than merely to increase the quantity of bad books.
Voltaire - The Portable Voltaire
In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one part of the citizens to give to the other.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.

God is always on the side of the big battalions.

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.
Voltaire - Zadig
It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.

When it is a question of money, everyone is of the same religion.

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.

- Voltaire