François-Marie Arouet–most commonly referred to by his pseudonym Voltaire–was a French philosopher, Enlightenment writer, and historian. He is most famous for his criticism of Christianity and his wisdom on freedom of speech and the toleration and reason of religion. Here are the best Voltaire quotes to get an insight into his beliefs and ideas:

Voltaire Biography

Voltaire was born into a wealthy family in Paris, France. It was there that he went to a prestigious secondary school and showed promise as a writer at a young age. He grew up to write some legendary works, including the satirical novella Candide, a 1759 book of philosophical and religious parody, depicting the concepts of optimism and religion. He also wrote The Henriade, Oedipus, Dictionnaire philosophique, a philosophical dictionary on Enlightenment and the Catholic Church.

Voltaire was arrested and exiled to Bastille multiple times, for arguing with the Chevalier de Rohan and for writing defamatory poetry. Shortly before he died in Paris in 1778, he was recognized as an icon of the Enlightenment period’s philosophy and ideas. A museum in Geneva was established and devoted to this famed French Enlightenment Writer. The Voltaire Foundation was vested at the University of Oxford. They published The Oxford Complete Works of Voltaire, a 220-volume collection of his plays, novels, and poems. 

To this day, he is criticized for his beliefs and how he grasped at fame as a writer. He often used inaccuracies and lied about everything about his life to get attention. Nonetheless, Voltaire is still praised as a writer and philosophical thinker for his theology intolerance and words of wisdom and philosophical ideas on religion.

Voltaire Quotes  from  Candide

1.

“I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?” — Voltaire

2.

“Our labor preserves us from three great evils — weariness, vice, and want.” — Voltaire

3.

“Do you believe,’ said Candide, ‘that men have always massacred each other as they do today, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?’ / Do you believe,’ said Martin, ‘that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?” — Voltaire

4.

“Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part, I read only to please myself, and like only what suits my taste.” — Voltaire

5.

“Optimism…the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.” — Voltaire

6.

“Let us cultivate our garden.” — Voltaire

7.

“When a man is in love, jealous, and just whipped by the Inquisition, he is no longer himself.” — Voltaire

8.

“Come! Your presence will either give me life or kill me with pleasure.” — Voltaire

9.

“Let us work without reasoning,’ said Martin; ‘it is the only way to make life endurable.” — Voltaire

10.

“But there must be some pleasure in condemning everything–in perceiving faults where others think they see beauties.’ / ‘You mean there is pleasure in having no pleasure.” — Voltaire

11.

“It is love; love, the comfort of the human species, the preserver of the universe, the soul of all sentient beings, love, tender love.” — Voltaire

12.

“If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?” — Voltaire

13.

“…man was born to live either in the convulsions of misery or in the lethargy of boredom.” — Voltaire

14.

“But for what purpose was the earth formed?” asked Candide. “To drive us mad,” replied Martin.” — Voltaire

15.

“Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.” — Voltaire

16.

“What a pessimist you are!” exclaimed Candide. /” That is because I know what life is,” said Martin.” — Voltaire

17.

“I hold firmly to my original views. After all, I am a philosopher.” — Voltaire

18.

“All men are by nature free; you have therefore an undoubted liberty to depart whenever you please, but will have many and great difficulties to encounter in passing the frontiers.” — Voltaire

19.

“I too, have known love, that ruler of hearts, that soul of our soul: it’s never brought me anything except one kiss and twenty kicks in the rump. How could such a beautiful cause produce such an abominable effect on you?” — Voltaire

20.

“Men must have somewhat altered the course of nature, for they were not born wolves, yet they have become wolves. God did not give them twenty-four-pounders or bayonets, yet they have made themselves bayonets and guns to destroy each other. In the same category, I place not only bankruptcies but the law which carries off the bankrupts’ effects, to defraud their creditors.” — Voltaire

21.

“Just for the sake of amusement, ask each passenger to tell you his story, and if you find a single one who hasn’t often cursed his life, who hasn’t told himself he’s the most miserable man in the world, you can throw me overboard head first.” — Voltaire

22.

“I have seen so many extraordinary things that nothing seems extraordinary to me.” — Voltaire

Voltaire Quotes on Life

23.

“We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.” — Voltaire

24.

“‎Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” — Voltaire

25.

“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

26.

“Don’t think money does everything, or you are going to end up doing everything for money.” — Voltaire

27.

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” — Voltaire

28.

“It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.” — Voltaire

29.

“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.” — Voltaire

30.

“God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.” — Voltaire

Voltaire Quotes on God and Religion

31.

“God has punished the knave, and the devil has drowned the rest.” — Voltaire

32.

“When man was put into the Garden of Eden, he was put there with the idea that he should work the land; and this proves that man was not born to be idle.” — Voltaire

33.

“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

34.

“God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.” — Voltaire

35.

“Faith consists in believing what reason cannot.” — Voltaire

36.

“Theology is to religion what poisons are to food.” — Voltaire

37.

“Religion began when the first scoundrel met the first fool.” — Voltaire

38.

“Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.” — Voltaire

39.

“May God defend me from my friends: I can defend myself from my enemies.” — Voltaire

40.

“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it.” — Voltaire

41.

“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” — Voltaire

42.

“Of all religions, the Christian should, of course, inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.” — Voltaire

43.

“God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.” — Voltaire

44.

“If you have two religions in your land, the two will cut each other’s throats; but if you have thirty religions, they will dwell in peace.” — Voltaire

45.

“When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.” — Voltaire

46.

“If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.” — Voltaire

Voltaire Quotes on Government, Power, and Truth

47.

“Love truth, but pardon error.” — Voltaire

48.

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

49.

“Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.” — Voltaire

50.

“Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.” — Voltaire

51.

“The art of government consists in taking as much money as possible to a class of citizens to give to another.” — Voltaire

52.

“Politics has its source in evil than in the greatness of the human spirit.” — Voltaire

53.

“Let the laws be clear, uniform and precise for interpreting laws is always to corrupt them.” — Voltaire

54.

“If you want good laws, burn those you have and make new ones.” — Voltaire

55.

“All men have equal rights to liberty, to their property, and to the protection of the laws.” — Voltaire

Voltaire Quotes on Knowledge, Learning, and Common Sense

56.

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” — Voltaire

57.

“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire

58.

“Dare to think for yourself.” — Voltaire

59.

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” — Voltaire

60.

“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.” — Voltaire

61.

“All the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.” — Voltaire

62.

“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” — Voltaire

63.

“The most original writers borrowed one from another. The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbor’s, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.” — Voltaire

Voltaire Quotes on Grief, Death, and Suffering

64.

“Tears are the silent language of grief.” — Voltaire

65.

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

66.

“The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.” — Voltaire

67.

“Secret griefs are crueler than public calamities.” — Voltaire

68.

“Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.” — Voltaire

Voltaire Quotes on Joy, Love, and Friendship

69.

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

70.

“The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.” — Voltaire

71.

“We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one.” — Voltaire

72.

“Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.” — Voltaire

73.

“A man loved by a beautiful woman will always get out of trouble.” — Voltaire

74.

“This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.” — Voltaire

75.

“The ear is the avenue to the heart.” — Voltaire

76.

“Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing, and love those who love you.” — Voltaire

77.

“Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.” — Voltaire

Voltaire Quotes on Humanity

78.

“All mortals are equal; it is not their birth, But virtue itself that makes the difference.” — Voltaire

79.

“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

80.

“It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.” — Voltaire

81.

“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.” — Voltaire

82.

“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.” — Voltaire

83.

“The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.” — Voltaire

84.

“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.” — Voltaire

85.

“It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.” — Voltaire

86.

“History never repeats itself. Man always does.” — Voltaire

Other Famous Voltaire Quotes

87.

“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.” — Voltaire

88.

“Perfect is the enemy of good.” — Voltaire

89.

“Originality is nothing but judicious imitation.” — Voltaire

90.

“Beware of the words internal security, for they are the eternal cry of the oppressor.” — Voltaire

91.

“Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.” — Voltaire

92.

“The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” — Voltaire