Quotes from Voltaire

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

The secret of being boring is to say everything.

The way to become boring is to say everything.

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

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.

This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

This poem will never reach its destination.

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

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

Truth is a fruit which should not be plucked until it is ripe.

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

Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.

We are all full of weakness and errors, let us mutually pardon each other our follies it is the first law of nature.

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

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.

Your book is dedicated by the soundest reason. You had better get out of France as quickly as you can.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

If you wish to converse with me, define your terms.

Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.

He who dies before many witnesses always does so with courage.

He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.

I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

Those who believe absurdities will commit atrocities.