Quotes from Voltaire

Whosoever does not know how to recognize the faults of great men is incapable of estimating their perfections.

Ideas are like beards; men do not have them until they grow up.

The man visited by ecstasies and visions, who takes dreams for realities is an enthusiast; the man who supports his madness with murder is a fanatic.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

It is not known precisely where angels dwell — whether in the air, in the void, or in the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we should be informed of their abode.

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.

I also know that we must cultivate our garden. For when man was put in the Garden of Eden, he was put there ut operaretur eum, to work; which proves that man was not born for rest.

Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror.

The prudent man does himself good; the virtuous one does it to other men.

Men are in general so tricky, so envious, and so cruel that when we find one who is only weak, we are too happy.

Men use thought only to justify their wrong doings, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.

The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him

A false science makes atheists, a true science prostrates men before the Deity

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

Men, generally going with the stream, seldom judge for themselves, and purity of taste is almost as rare as talent.

Virtuous men alone possess friends.

There are men who can think no deeper than a fact.

"You're a bitter man," said Candide. "That's because I've lived," said Martin.

In France every man is either an anvil or a hammer; he is a beater or must be beaten.

Let us leave every man at liberty to seek into him and to lose himself in his ideas.

The instinct of a man is to pursue everything that flies from him, and to fly from all that pursue him.

Virtue between men is a commerce of good actions: he who has no part in this commerce must not be reckoned.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.