Voltaire Quotes

I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.

Is politics nothing other than the art of deliberately lying?

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

Ice-cream is exquisite – what a pity it isn’t illegal.

All men are born with a nose and five fingers, but no one is born with a knowledge of God.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

Let the punishments of criminals be useful. A hanged man is good for nothing; a man condemned to public works still serves the country, and is a living lesson.

He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.

By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.

It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.

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