Top 500 Voltaire Quotes (2025 Update)
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251. “The superstitious man is to the rogue what the slave is to the tyrant.”

— Voltaire

252. “Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles.”

— Voltaire

253. “Never having been able to succeed in the world, he took his revenge by speaking ill of it.”

— Voltaire

254. “Adultery is an evil only inasmuch as it is a theft; but we do not steal that which is given to us.”

— Voltaire

255. “Self love is the instrument of our preservation.”

— Voltaire

256. “The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.”

— Voltaire

257. “Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.”

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

260. “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

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

264. “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

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

— Voltaire

266. “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

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

— Voltaire

268. “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

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

271. “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.”

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

273. “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

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

— Voltaire

275. “War is the greatest of all crimes; and yet there is no aggressor who does not color his crime with the pretext of justice.”

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

277. “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

278. “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

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

283. “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

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

286. “Let all the laws be clear, uniform and precise for interpreting laws is almost always to corrupt them.”

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

294. “A good imitation is the most perfect originality.”

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

298. “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

299. “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

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

— Voltaire