"A witty saying proves nothing."
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Quote collection
Voltaire quotes (page 24 of 36)
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"He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it."
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"I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil."
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"Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool."
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"History should be written as philosophy."
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"All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunegonde, if you hadn't been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn't traveled across America on foot, if you hadn't given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn't lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn't be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios. - That is very well put, said Candide, but we must cultivate our garden."
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"Custom, law bent my first years to the religion of the happy Muslims. I see it too clearly: the care taken of our childhood forms our feelings, our habits, our belief. By the Ganges I would have been a slave of the false gods, a Christian in Paris, a Muslim here."
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"Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound."
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"Individual misfortunes give rise to the general good; so that the more individual misfortunes exist, the more all is fine."
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"Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest."
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"History is but the record of crimes and misfortunes. L'histoire n'est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs"
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"Man can have only a certain number of teeth, hair and ideas; there comes a time when he necessarily loses his teeth, hair and ideas."
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"But for what purpose was the earth formed?" asked Candide. "To drive us mad," replied Martin."
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"I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms."
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"Let us leave every man at liberty to seek into him and to lose himself in his ideas."
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"It is the triumph of superior reason to live with folks who don't have any."
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"I read these words which are the sum of all moral philosophy, and which cut short all the disputes of the casuists: When in doubt if an action is good or bad, refrain."
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"The passions are the winds which fill the sails of the vessel; they sink it at times, but without them it would be impossible to make way."
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"A good action is preferable to an argument."
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"What is not in nature can never be true."
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