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Favourite quotes (21448)

“We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Nous cherchons tous le bonheur, mais sans savoir où, comme les ivrognes qui cherchent leur maison, sachant confusément qu'ils en ont une.
Notebooks (c.1735-c.1750)
A variation on this remark can be found in the same notebook: Men who look for happiness are like drunkards who cannot find their house but know that they have one [Les hommes qui cherchent le bonheur sont comme des ivrognes qui ne peuvent trouver leur maison, mais qui savent qu'ils en ont une].
Citas

“When we hear news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Il faut toujours en fait de nouvelles attendre le sacrement de la confirmation.
Letter to Charles-Augustin Ferriol, comte d'Argental (28 August 1760]])
Citas

“The best is the enemy of the good.”

Voltaire La Bégueule

Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien. "La Bégueule" (Contes, 1772) Variant translations:The perfect is the enemy of the good. The better is the enemy of the good. translation of earlier traditional Italian Il meglio è nemico del bene, attested since 1603: Proverbi italiani (Italian Proverbs), by Orlando Pescetti http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/orlando-pescetti/ (c. 1556 – c. 1624) ( p. 30 https://books.google.com/books?id=0fkXqSJmiyEC&pg=PA30-IA2&q=%22Il%20meglio%20%C3%A8%20nemico%20del%20bene%22#v=onepage, p. 45 https://books.google.com/books?id=IRPam75-SI4C&pg=RA1-PT45&q=%22Il%20meglio%20%C3%A8%20nemico%20del%20bene%22#v=onepage) Voltaire cites this saying in his poem "La Bégueule" ("The prude woman") while ascribing it to an unnamed "Italian sage"; he also gives the saying (without attribution) in Italian (Il meglio è l'inimico del bene [note spelling difference: l'inimico instead of nemico for "[the] enemy") in the article "Art Dramatique" ("Dramatic Art", 1770) in the Dictionnaire philosophique Citas

“Virtuous men alone possess friends.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Les hommes vertueux ont seuls des amis. "Friendship" http://www.voltaire-integral.com/Html/17/amitie.htm (1764) Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)

“It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.”

Voltaire Le Siècle de Louis XIV

Il est dangereux d’avoir raison dans des choses où des hommes accrédités ont tort.
"Catalogue pour la plupart des écrivains français qui ont paru dans Le Siècle de Louis XIV, pour servir à l'histoire littéraire de ce temps," Le Siècle de Louis XIV (1752)
The most frequently attributed variant of this quote is: It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Citas

“Use, do not abuse; as the wise man commands. I flee Epictetus and Petronius alike. Neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Usez, n’abusez point; le sage ainsi l’ordonne.
Je fuis également Épictète et Pétrone.
L’abstinence ou l’excès ne fit jamais d’heureux.
"Cinquième discours: sur la nature de plaisir," Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)
Citas

“Where is the prince sufficiently educated to know that for seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm?”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Où est le prince assez instruit pour savoir que depuis dix-sept cents ans la secte chrétienne n’a jamais fait que du mal? Letters of Voltaire and Frederick the Great (New York: Brentano's, 1927), transl. Richard Aldington, letter 160 from Voltaire to Frederick II of Prussia, 6 April 1767 http://perso.orange.fr/dboudin/VOLTAIRE/45/1767/6824.html Citas

“It is sometimes said, common sense is very rare.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

On dit quelquefois, le sens commun est fort rare... Philosophical Dictionary ('Sens Commun') https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Voltaire_-_Dictionnaire_philosophique_portatif,_6e_%C3%A9dition,_tome_2.djvu/209 (1767). Compare Juvenal, Satires, viii:73: Original Latin: rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa fortuna http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/juvenal/8.shtml. Published translation in French (1731): Il est fort rare qu'on conserve le Sens commun dans une si haute fortune. https://books.google.com/books?id=lFBkAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA335&dq=%22Le+sens+commun%22+%22fort+rare%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjepqeYtNfLAhUS3mMKHb30BdkQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22il%20est%20fort%20rare%22&f=false English translation: For rarely are civic sympathies [alternative translation: common sense] to be found in that rank". Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)

“Thought depends largely on the stomach. In spite of this, those with the best stomachs are not always the best thinkers.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

C'est une plaisante chose que la pensée dépende absolument de l'estomac, et malgré cela les meilleurs estomacs ne soient pas les meilleurs penseurs.
Letter to Jean le Rond d'Alembert (20 August 1770)
Citas

“Prejudice is an opinion without judgement.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Le préjugé est une opinion sans jugement.
"Prejudices" (1764)
Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)

“Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Tout homme sensé, tout homme de bien, doit avoir la secte chrétienne en horreur. Examen important de milord Bolingbroke http://www.worldcat.org/title/examen-important-de-milord-bolingbroke-ecrit-sur-la-fin-de-1736-accompagne-des-notes-de-mr-m-editeur-de-ses-ouvrages/oclc/11007337 (1736): Conclusion Citas

“Let us cultivate our garden.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Citas, Candide (1759)

“The first who was king was a fortunate soldier:
Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.”

Voltaire Mérope

Le premier qui fut roi fut un soldat heureux:
Qui sert bien son pays n'a pas besoin d'aïeux.
Mérope, act I, scene III (1743). Borrowed from Lefranc de Pompignan's "Didon"
Citas

“Quite a heavy weight, a name too quickly famous.”

Voltaire Henriade

C'est un poids bien pesant qu'un nom trop tôt fameux.
La Henriade, chant troisième, l.41 (1722)
Citas

“All styles are good except the boring kind.”

Voltaire L'enfant prodigue

Tous les genres sont bons, hors le genre ennuyeux.
L'Enfant prodigue: comédie en vers dissillabes (1736), Preface
Citas

“It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

On dit que Dieu est toujours pour les gros bataillons.
Letter to François-Louis-Henri Leriche (6 February 1770)
In his Notebooks (c.1735-c.1750), Voltaire wrote: God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.
Citas

“It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.”

Voltaire book Zadig

Il vaut mieux hasarder de sauver un coupable que de condamner un innocent.
Zadig (1747)
Citas

“In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Citas, Candide (1759)

“Doctors are men who prescribe medicine of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, for human beings of which they know nothing.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Les médecins administrent des médicaments dont ils savent très peu, à des malades dont ils savent moins, pour guérir des maladies dont ils ne savent rien. This attribution to Voltaire appears in Strauss' Familiar Medical Quotations (1968), p. 394, and in publications as early as 1956 http://books.google.pt/books?id=lCtCAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Doctors+are+men+who+prescribe+medicine+of%22&dq=%22Doctors+are+men+who+prescribe+medicine+of%22&hl=pt-PT&sa=X&ei=mbnWUsvDIfTB7Aaw_YD4Dw&redir_esc=y; the quotation in French does not, however, appear to be original, and is probably a relatively modern invention, only quoted in recent (21st century) published works, which attribute it to "Voltaire" without citing any source. Attributed

“While loving glory so much how can you persist in a plan which will cause you to lose it?”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

En aimant tant la gloire, comment pouvez-vous vous obstiner à un projet qui vous la fera perdre? Letters of Voltaire and Frederick the Great (New York: Brentano's, 1927), transl. Richard Aldington, letter 130 from Voltaire to Frederick II of Prussia, October 1757. http://perso.orange.fr/dboudin/VOLTAIRE/39/1757/3426.html Citas