“The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.”
– Voltaire
“History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.”
– Voltaire
“History should be written as philosophy.”
– Voltaire
“Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.”
– Voltaire
“The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.”
– Voltaire
“He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend provided, of course, he really is dead.”
– Voltaire
“The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.”
– Voltaire
“One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.”
– Voltaire
“The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.”
– Voltaire
“The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.”
– Voltaire
“An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.”
– Voltaire
“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
“In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.”
– Voltaire
“All styles are good except the tiresome kind.”
– Voltaire
“In this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.”
– Voltaire
“The best is the enemy of the good.”
– Voltaire
“The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.”
– Voltaire
“Better is the enemy of good.”
– Voltaire
“It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.”
– Voltaire
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”
– Voltaire
“The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.”
– Voltaire
“To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.”
– Voltaire
“If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.”
– Voltaire
“If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him.”
– 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
“God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.”
– Voltaire
“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.”
– Voltaire
“Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.”
– Voltaire
“All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.”
– Voltaire
“God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.”
– Voltaire