Voltaire quotes - page 13

Men appear to prefer to ruin one another's fortunes, and to cut each other's throats over a few miserable villages, than to extend the means of human happiness. (Voltaire)
Truth is a fruit which should not be plucked until it is ripe. View quote
Voltaire
How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child's board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted. View quote
Voltaire
Do well and you will have no need for ancestors. View quote
Voltaire
I read only to please myself, and enjoy only what suits my taste. View quote
Voltaire
It is not more surprising to be born twice than once everything in nature is resurrection. View quote
Voltaire
You will notice that in all disputes between Christians since the birth of the Church, Rome has always favored the doctrine which most completely subjugated the human mind and annihilated reason. View quote
Voltaire
History is fables agreed upon. View quote
Voltaire
I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to men that the inventors of syllogisms. He who imagined a ship towers considerably above him who imagined innate ideas. View quote
Voltaire
Shun idleness is the rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals. View quote
Voltaire
A good cook is a certain slow poisoner, if you are not temperate. (Voltaire)
Slavery is also as ancient as war, and was as human nature. View quote
Voltaire
Originality is nothing but judicious plagiarism. View quote
Voltaire
There are no sects in geometry. View quote
Voltaire
I have no more than twenty acres of ground,' he replied, 'the whole of which I cultivate myself with the help of my children and our labor keeps off from us the three great evils - boredom, vice, and want. View quote
Voltaire
Exaggeration is the inseparable companion of greatness. View quote
Voltaire
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. View quote
Voltaire
Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively. View quote
Voltaire
A woman can keep one secret the secret of her age. View quote
Voltaire
It is only through timidity that states are lost. View quote
Voltaire
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)
For seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm. View quote
Voltaire
Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read. View quote
Voltaire
A multitude of laws in a country is like a great number of physicians, a sign of weakness and malady. View quote
Voltaire
Alas...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? View quote
Voltaire