1,052 Quotes by Voltaire

Je fus nommé historiographe de France; et le roi me fit présent d'une charge de gentilhomme ordinaire de sa chambre; je conclus que pour faire la plus petite fortune, il valait mieux dire quatre mots à la maîtresse d'un roi, que d'écrire cent volumes.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

My dear young lady, when you are in love, and jealous, and have been flogged by the Inquisition, there's no knowing what you may do.

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reasoning.

Common sense is not so common.

I have seen so many extraordinary things that nothing seems extraordinary to me

The interest I have to believe a thing is no proof that such a thing exists.

One should always cite what one does not understand at all in the language one understands the least.

C’est qu’il faut bien citer ce qu’on ne comprend point du tout dans la langue qu’on entend le moins.