Top 25 Quotes by Voltaire of 701 - Page 22

Individual misfortunes give rise to the general good; so that the more individual misfortunes exist, the more all is fine.

Individual misfortunes give rise to the general good; so that the more individual misfortunes exist, the more all is fine.

Voltaire

Failure, Giving, Individual

It is amusing that a virtue is made of the vice of chastity; and it's a pretty odd sort of chastity at that, which leads men straight into the sin of Onan, and girls to the waning of their color.

Voltaire

Girl, Sex, Humorous

Letter to M. Mariott, 28 March 1766

Love is a cloth which imagination embroiders.

Voltaire

Best Love, Love Is, Imagination

This is no time to be making new enemies.

Voltaire

Enemy

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity.

Voltaire

Tolerance, Humanity, Pardon Me

Voltaire (2015). “Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary”, p.497, Voltaire

Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing, and love those who love you.

Voltaire

Love, Life, Marriage

Letter to Jean le Rond d'Alembert, November 28, 1762.

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

Eye, Color, May

Voltaire (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of Voltaire (Illustrated)”, p.3307, Delphi Classics

We have our arts, the ancients had theirs... We cannot raise obelisks a hundred feet high in a single piece, but our meridians are more exact.

Voltaire

Art, Feet, Progress

Voltaire (2016). “Voltaire – The Philosophical Works: Treatise On Tolerance, Philosophical Dictionary, Candide, Letters on England, Plato’s Dream, Dialogues, The Study of Nature, Ancient Faith and Fable, Zadig…: From the French writer, historian and philosopher, famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion and freedom of expression”, p.163, e-artnow

Who are you, Nature? I live in you; for fifty years I have been seeking you, and I have not found you yet.

Voltaire

Life, Nature, Years

Francois Voltaire (1977). “The Portable Voltaire”, p.114, Penguin

The Jewish nation dares to display an irreconcilable hatred toward all nations, and revolts against all masters; always superstitious, always greedy for the well-being enjoyed by others, always barbarous - cringing in misfortune and insolent in prosperity.

Voltaire

Hatred, Prosperity, Greedy

"'Essai sur les Moeurs et l'Esprit des Nations' ('Essay on the Manners of Nations')". Book by Voltaire. Introduction, XLII, 1756.

Pleasantry is never good on serious points, because it always regards subjects in that point of view in which it is not the purpose to consider them.

Voltaire

Philosophy, Views, Serious

Voltaire (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of Voltaire (Illustrated)”, p.4541, Delphi Classics

In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.

Voltaire

Men

Voltaire (2016). “Voltaire – The Philosophical Works: Treatise On Tolerance, Philosophical Dictionary, Candide, Letters on England, Plato’s Dream, Dialogues, The Study of Nature, Ancient Faith and Fable, Zadig…: From the French writer, historian and philosopher, famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion and freedom of expression”, p.1632, e-artnow

He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.

Voltaire

Wise, Fierce, Severe

"Epшtre au Roi de Prusse". Book by Voltaire (translated), 1740.

Give me a few minutes to talk away my face and I can seduce the Queen of France.

Voltaire

Queens, Giving, Faces

Life is bristling with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one's garden.

Voltaire

Acceptance, Garden, Thorns

Letter to Pierre-Joseph Luneau de Boisjermain on October 21, 1769. "Oeuvres Complètes de Voltaire: Correspondance". Book published by Garnier frères, Paris, Volume XIV, letter #7692, p. 478, 1882.

But there must be some pleasure in condemning everything--in perceiving faults where others think they see beauties.' 'You mean there is pleasure in having no pleasure.

Voltaire

Mean, Thinking, Faults

What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.

Voltaire

Idols, Names, Fame

We are astonished at thought, but sensation is equally wonderful.

Voltaire

Ideas, Wonderful, Sensations

Voltaire (2016). “VOLTAIRE – Premium Collection: Novels, Philosophical Writings, Historical Works, Plays, Poems & Letters (60+ Works in One Volume) - Illustrated: Candide, A Philosophical Dictionary, A Treatise on Toleration, Plato's Dream, The Princess of Babylon, Zadig, The Huron, Socrates, The Sage and the Atheist, Dialogues, Oedipus, Caesar…”, p.4284, e-artnow

Everything can be borne except contempt.

Voltaire

Contempt, Scorn

If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?

Voltaire

Optimistic, World, Candide

Voltaire (2016). “Candide”, p.18, Xist Publishing

It is with books as with the fires of our grates, everybody borrows a light from his neighbor to kindle his own, which in turn is communicated to others, and each partakes of all.

Voltaire

Book, Fire, Light

Voltaire (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of Voltaire (Illustrated)”, p.4316, Delphi Classics

The system of Descartes... seemed to give a plausible reason for all those phenomena; and this reason seemed more just, as it is simple and intelligible to all capacities. But in philosophy, a student ought to doubt of the things he fancies he understands too easily, as much as of those he does not understand.

Voltaire

Philosophy, Science, Simple

Voltaire (2016). “VOLTAIRE – Premium Collection: Novels, Philosophical Writings, Historical Works, Plays, Poems & Letters (60+ Works in One Volume) - Illustrated: Candide, A Philosophical Dictionary, A Treatise on Toleration, Plato's Dream, The Princess of Babylon, Zadig, The Huron, Socrates, The Sage and the Atheist, Dialogues, Oedipus, Caesar…”, p.4649, e-artnow