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François-Marie Arouet, better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including free trade. Voltaire was a prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form including plays, poetry, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform, despite strict censorship laws and harsh penalties for those who broke them. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma and the French institutions of his day. Voltaire was one of several Enlightenment figures (along with Montesquieu, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Émilie du Châtelet) whose works and ideas influenced important thinkers of both the American and French Revolutions. Here are some quotes: A witty saying proves nothing. Voltaire All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God. Voltaire All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. Voltaire All styles are good except the tiresome kind. Voltaire All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women. Voltaire An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination. Voltaire Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. Voltaire Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel. Voltaire Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung. Voltaire Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. Voltaire As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities. Voltaire Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law. Voltaire Better is the enemy of good. Voltaire Business is the salt of life. Voltaire By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property. Voltaire Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause. Voltaire Clever tyrants are never punished. Voltaire Common sense is not so common. Voltaire Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient. Voltaire Do well and you will have no need for ancestors. Voltaire Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. Voltaire Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. Voltaire Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do. Voltaire Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest. Voltaire Everything's fine today, that is our illusion. Voltaire Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. Voltaire Fear follows crime and is its punishment. Voltaire Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce. Voltaire Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent. Voltaire God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well. Voltaire God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. Voltaire God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best. Voltaire Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers. Voltaire He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise. Voltaire He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked. Voltaire He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first. Voltaire He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead. Voltaire He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it. Voltaire He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad. Voltaire History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes. Voltaire History should be written as philosophy. 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. Voltaire I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom. Voltaire I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. Voltaire I hate women because they always know where things are. Voltaire 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. Voltaire I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it. Voltaire I have only ever made one prayer to God, a very short one: O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it. Voltaire I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil. Voltaire I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms. Voltaire Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal. Voltaire If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated. Voltaire If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him. Voltaire If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him. Voltaire Illusion is the first of all pleasures. Voltaire In every author let us distinguish the man from his works. Voltaire In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another. Voltaire In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation. Voltaire In this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others. Voltaire Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes. Voltaire Injustice in the end produces independence. Voltaire Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others? Voltaire It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge. Voltaire It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one. Voltaire It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. Voltaire It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere. Voltaire It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. Voltaire It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere. Voltaire It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind. Voltaire It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce. Voltaire It is not known precisely where angels dwell whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we should be informed of their abode. Voltaire It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love. Voltaire It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it. Voltaire It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue. Voltaire It is said that the present is pregnant with the future. Voltaire It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow. Voltaire It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape. Voltaire Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. Voltaire Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world. Voltaire Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable. Voltaire Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us. Voltaire Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same. Voltaire Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination. Voltaire Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. Voltaire Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity. Voltaire Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him. Voltaire Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts. Voltaire My life is a struggle. Voltaire Nature has always had more force than education. Voltaire Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry always gets the best of the argument. Voltaire No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking. Voltaire No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. Voltaire Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense. Voltaire Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. Voltaire Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men. Voltaire One great use of words is to hide our thoughts. Voltaire One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose. Voltaire Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes. Voltaire Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable. Voltaire Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another. Voltaire The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself. Voltaire The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination. Voltaire The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great. Voltaire The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all. Voltaire The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it. Voltaire The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs. Voltaire The multitude of books is making us ignorant. Voltaire The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year. Voltaire The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error. Voltaire The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it. Voltaire The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death. Voltaire The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything. Voltaire The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice. Voltaire The superfluous, a very necessary thing. Voltaire The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it. Voltaire The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason. Voltaire The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence. Voltaire The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker. Voltaire There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times. Voltaire Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too. Voltaire This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it. Voltaire Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Voltaire Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable. Voltaire To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd. Voltaire To hold a pen is to be at war. Voltaire To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. Voltaire To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth. Voltaire To the wicked, everything serves as pretext. Voltaire Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them. Voltaire Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy. Voltaire Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors. Voltaire Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool. Voltaire We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature. Voltaire We are rarely proud when we are alone. Voltaire We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly. Voltaire We cannot wish for that we know not. Voltaire We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard. Voltaire We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest. Voltaire We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved. Voltaire We never live; we are always in the expectation of living. Voltaire Weakness on both sides is, as we know, the motto of all quarrels. Voltaire What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous. Voltaire What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature. Voltaire What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy. Voltaire What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking. Voltaire When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics. Voltaire When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion. Voltaire Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors. Voltaire Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life. Voltaire