Top 500 Voltaire Quotes (2025 Update)
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251. “The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.”

— Voltaire

252. “How I like the boldness of the English, how I like the people who say what they think!”

— Voltaire

253. “He who seeks truth should be of no country.”

— Voltaire

254. “Every man can educate himself. It’s shameful to put one’s mind into the hands of those whom you wouldn’t entrust with your money. Dare to think for yourself.”

— Voltaire

255. “If it’s too silly to be said, it can always be sung.”

— Voltaire

256. “Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.”

— Voltaire

257. “Every abuse ought to be reformed, unless the reform is more dangerous than the abuse itself.”

— Voltaire

258. “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

259. “Happiness is a good that nature sells us.”

— Voltaire

260. “Faith consists in believing not what seems true, but what seems false to our understanding.”

— Voltaire

261. “I disapprove of what you say but i will defend to the death your right to say it.”

— Voltaire

262. “There’s scarce a point whereon mankind agree – So well as in their boast of killing me; I boast of nothing, but when I’ve a mind – I think I can be even with mankind.”

— Voltaire

263. “The most genuine and efficacious charity is that which greases the paws of the priests; such charity covers a multitude of sins.”

— Voltaire

264. “In all the disputes which have excited Christians against each other, Rome has invariably decided in favor of that opinion which tended most towards the suppression of the human intellect and the annihilation of the reasoning powers.”

— Voltaire

265. “If you are attacked as regards your style, never reply; it is for your work alone to make answer.”

— Voltaire

266. “What would constitute useful history? That which should teach us our duties and our rights, without appearing to teach them.”

— Voltaire

267. “God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.”

— Voltaire

268. “The adjective is the enemy of the noun. Variant: The adjective is the enemy of the substantive.”

— Voltaire

269. “All is a miracle. The stupendous order of nature, the revolution of a hundred millions of worlds around a million of stars, the activity of light, the life of all animals, all are grand and perpetual miracles.”

— Voltaire

270. “Whatever you do, crush the infamy.”

— Voltaire

271. “Whatever you do, trample down abuses, and love those who love you. Different translation: Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing superstition, and love those who love you.”

— Voltaire

272. “It is not a mistress I have lost but half of myself, a soul for which my soul seems to have been made.”

— Voltaire

273. “The effervescence of this fresh wine reveals the true brilliance of the French people.”

— Voltaire

274. “A man loved by a beautiful woman will always get out of trouble.”

— Voltaire

275. “The first clergyman was the first rascal who met the first fool.”

— Voltaire

276. “The Jews have always been waiting for a Messiah, but their Messiah is for them only, not for us, a Messiah ho will give them mastery over the Christians.”

— Voltaire

277. “If there were only one religion in England there would be danger of despotism, if there were two, they would cut each other’s throats, but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness.”

— Voltaire

278. “To caress the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten away our heart.”

— Voltaire

279. “Now is not the time for making new enemies.”

— Voltaire

280. “It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.”

— Voltaire

281. “Discord is the great ill of mankind; and tolerance is the only remedy for it.”

— Voltaire

282. “England has forty-two religions and only two sauces.”

— Voltaire

283. “No opinion is worth burning your neighbor for.”

— Voltaire

284. “Beware of the words “internal security,” for they are the eternal cry of the oppressor.”

— Voltaire

285. “One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.”

— Voltaire

286. “All the arts are brothers; each one is a light to the others.”

— Voltaire

287. “My life’s dream has been a perpetual nightmare.”

— Voltaire

288. “Once the people begin to reason, all is lost.”

— Voltaire

289. “I know of no great men except those who have rendered great service to the human race.”

— Voltaire

290. “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

291. “Know that the secret of the arts is to correct nature.”

— Voltaire

292. “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

293. “I have a simple philosophy: Fill what’s empty. Empty what’s full. Scratch where it itches. Alice Roosevelt Longworth Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”

— Voltaire

294. “All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.”

— Voltaire

295. “We are rarely proud when we are alone.”

— Voltaire

296. “To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.”

— Voltaire

297. “In this country we find it pays to shoot an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.”

— Voltaire

298. “If you want to kill Christianity you must abolish Sunday.”

— Voltaire

299. “If you want good laws, burn those you have and make new ones.”

— Voltaire

300. “Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.”

— Voltaire