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Quotes by Voltaire

Voltaire

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

Voltaire

Faith is believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

Voltaire

What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.

Voltaire

Fear follows crime and is its punishment.

Voltaire

It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.

Voltaire

He who thinks himself wise O heavens! is a great fool.

Voltaire

Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.

Voltaire

If there were no God it would be necessary to invent him.

Voltaire

Pleasure is the object duty and the goal of all rational creatures.

Voltaire

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

Voltaire

If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.

Voltaire

If God made us in his image we have certainly returned the compliment.

Voltaire

The most beautiful of all emblems is that of God whom Timaeus of Locris describes under the image of A circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.

Voltaire

The fate of a nation has often depended on the good or bad digestion of a prime minister.

Voltaire

History is just the portrayal of crimes and misfortunes.

Voltaire

A good imitation is the most perfect originality.

Voltaire

We never live but we are always in the expectation of living.

Voltaire

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

Voltaire

Luck is a word devoid of sense nothing can exist without a cause.

Voltaire

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