She blushed and so did he. She greeted him in a faltering voice, and he spoke to her without knowing what he was saying.
— Candide
Voltaire, the pen name of François-Marie Arouet, was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, satirist and historian. Famous for his wit and for his criticism of Christianity and of slavery, he advocated freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the separation of church and state.
He wrote in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays and histories, and produced more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was one of the first authors to become renowned and commercially successful internationally, while living at constant risk from the censorship laws of the French monarchy. His best-known work, Candide, ridicules the belief of Gottfried Leibniz that ours is the "best of all possible worlds." Candide is also his most quoted work in our library.
He wrote in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays and histories, and produced more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was one of the first authors to become renowned and commercially successful internationally, while living at constant risk from the censorship laws of the French monarchy. His best-known work, Candide, ridicules the belief of Gottfried Leibniz that ours is the "best of all possible worlds." Candide is also his most quoted work in our library.
Most quoted works
- Candide 23
- Philosophical Dictionary 11
- A Treatise on Toleration and Other Essays 2
- Candide: or, Optimism 2
- Micromegas 2
- The Works: Voltaire 2
Let us work without reasoning,' said Martin; 'it is the only way to make life endurable.
— Candide
Morality is everywhere the same for all men, therefore it comes from God; sects differ, therefore they are the work of men.
— A Pocket Philosophical Dictionary
Wisdom must yield to superstition's rules, Who arms with bigot zeal the hand of fools.
— Candide and The Maid of Orleans
Faith consists in believing what reason cannot.
— The Works: Voltaire
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
— Questions sur les Miracles à M. Claparede, Professeur de Théologie à Genève, par un Proposant: Ou Extrait de Diverses Lettres de M. de Voltaire
What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men, and that as a result he's certain he'll go to heaven if he cuts your throat?
— Philosophical Dictionary
Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.
— Candide
All men are by nature free; you have therefore an undoubted liberty to depart whenever you please, but will have many and great difficulties to encounter in passing the frontiers.
— Candide
If they're from the village, you take them to the inn. If they're from the city, you treat them with respect when they are beautiful and throw them on the highway when they are dead.
— Candide
All our ancient history, as one of our wits remarked, is no more than accepted fiction.
— Jeannot et Colin
had no need of a guide to learn ignorance
— Candide
A true god surely cannot have been born of a girl, nor died on the gibbet, nor be eaten in a piece of dough... [or inspired] books, filled with contradictions, madness, and horror.
— The Works: Voltaire
The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reasoning.
— Philosophical Dictionary
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
— La Pucelle D'Orleans
What is tolerance? It is a necessary consequence of humanity. We are all fallible, let us then pardon each other's follies. This is the first principle of natural right.
— Philosophical Dictionary
Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.