Voltaire: Trending quotes (page 3)

“It is a serious question among them whether they [Africans] are descended from monkeys or whether the monkeys come from them. Our wise men have said that man was created in the image of God. Now here is a lovely image of the Divine Maker: a flat and black nose with little or hardly any intelligence. A time will doubtless come when these animals will know how to cultivate the land well, beautify their houses and gardens, and know the paths of the stars: one needs time for everything.”

Voltaire

C’est une grande question parmi eux s’ils [les africains] sont descendus des singes ou si les singes sont venus d’eux. Nos sages ont dit que l’homme est l’image de Dieu: voilà une plaisante image de l’Être éternel qu’un nez noir épaté, avec peu ou point d’intelligence! Un temps viendra, sans doute, où ces animaux sauront bien cultiver la terre, l’embellir par des maisons et par des jardins, et connaître la route des astres il faut du temps pour tout.
Les Lettres d'Amabed (1769): Septième Lettre d'Amabed http://www.voltaire-integral.com/Html/21/10AMABED.html
Citas

Love , Men , God , Star

“Let us work without reasoning," said Martin; "it is the only way to make life endurable.”

Voltaire

Citas, Candide (1759)

Life , Way

“Define your terms, you will permit me again to say, or we shall never understand one another.”

Voltaire

Définissez les termes, vous dis-je, ou jamais nous ne nous entendrons.
"Miracles" http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/voltaire-the-works-of-voltaire-vol-vi-philosophical-dictionary-part-4 (1764)
Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)

Understanding

“The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture for wild beasts to fight in.”

Voltaire

Les anciens Romains élevaient des prodiges d'architecture pour faire combattre des bêtes.
Letter addressed to "un premier commis" [name unknown] (20 June 1733), from Oeuvres Complètes de Voltaire: Correspondance [Garnier frères, Paris, 1880], vol. I, letter # 343 (p. 354)
Citas

Fight

“The man, who in a fit of melancholy, kills himself today, would have wished to live had he waited a week.”

Voltaire

Tel homme qui dans un excès de mélancolie se tue aujourd’hui aimerait à vivre s’il attendait huit jours.
"Cato" http://www.voltaire-integral.com/Html/18/caton.htm (1764)
Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)

Waiting

“Where there is friendship, there is our natural soil.”

Voltaire

Où est l'amitié est la patrie.
Letter to Nicolas-Claude Thieriot (1734)
Citas

Friendship , Nature

“May we not return to those scoundrels of old, the illustrious founders of superstition and fanaticism, who first took the knife from the altar to make victims of those who refused to be their disciples?”

Voltaire

Ne peut-on pas remonter jusqu’à ces anciens scélérats, fondateurs illustres de la superstition et du fanatisme, qui, les premiers, ont pris le couteau sur l’autel pour faire des victimes de ceux qui refusaient d’etre leurs disciples?
Letter to Frederick II of Prussia (December 1740), published in Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire, Vol. 7 (1869) http://books.google.com/books?id=z9MWAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105#v=onepage&q&f=false, edited by Georges Avenel, p. 105; as translated by Richard Aldington
Citas

“Virtue is debased by self-justification.”

Voltaire Oedipus

Oedipe, act II, scene IV (1718)
Citas

“His reputation will go on increasing because scarcely anyone reads him.”

Voltaire

Sa réputation s’affermira toujours, parce qu’on ne le lit guère.
"Dante http://www.voltaire-integral.com/Html/18/dante.htm" (1765)
Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)

Reading

“All philosophical sects have run aground on the reef of moral and physical ill. It only remains for us to confess that God, having acted for the best, had not been able to do better.”

Voltaire Dictionnaire philosophique

Toutes les sectes des philosophes ont échoué contre l’écueil du mal physique et moral. Il ne reste que d’avouer que Dieu ayant agi pour le mieux n’a pu agir mieux.
"Power, Omnipotence," Dictionnaire philosophique (1785-1789)
Citas

God

“I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc. It does not behoove us, who were only savages and barbarians when these Indians and Chinese peoples were civilized and learned, to dispute their antiquity.”

Voltaire

Voltaire, quoted in Sanskrit Reader 1: A Reader in Sanskrit Literature by Heiko Kretschmer
Citas

People , Learning

“The institution of religion exists only to keep mankind in order, and to make men merit the goodness of God by their virtue. Everything in a religion which does not tend towards this goal must be considered foreign or dangerous.”

Voltaire

" The Ecclesiastical Ministry http://history.hanover.edu/texts/voltaire/voleccle.html"
Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)

Men , God , Religion

“All of the other people have committed crimes, the Jews are the only ones who have boasted about committing them. They are, all of them, born with raging fanaticism in their hearts, just as the Bretons and the Germans are born with blond hair. I would not be in the least bit surprised if these people would not some day become deadly to the human race.”

Voltaire

Tous les autres peuples ont commis des crimes, les Juifs sont les seuls qui s'en soient vantés. Ils sont tous nés avec la rage du fanatisme dans le cœur, comme les Bretons et les Germains naissent avec des cheveux blonds. Je ne serais point étonné que cette nation ne fût un jour funeste au genre humain.
Lettres de Memmius a Cicéron (1771)
Citas

People , Rage , Heart

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Voltaire

Variants:
Monsieur l’abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.
I wholly disapprove of what you say—and will defend to the death your right to say it.
Though these words are regularly attributed to Voltaire, they were first used by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writing under the pseudonym of Stephen G Tallentyre in The Friends of Voltaire (1906), as a summation of Voltaire's beliefs on freedom of thought and expression. http://books.google.it/books?id=j3kGAQAAIAAJ&q=%22I+disapprove+of+what+you+say,+but+I+will+defend+to+the+death+your+right+to+say+it%22+intitle:%22The+Friends+of+Voltaire%22&dq=%22I+disapprove+of+what+you+say,+but+I+will+defend+to+the+death+your+right+to+say+it%22+intitle:%22The+Friends+of+Voltaire%22&hl=it&ei=6J3uTbDYKcLX8gOnkLGTBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA
Another possible source for the quote was proposed by Norbert Guterman, editor of "A Book of French Quotations," who noted a letter to M. le Riche (6 February 1770) in which Voltaire is quoted as saying: "Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write" ("Monsieur l'abbé, je déteste ce que vous écrivez, mais je donnerai ma vie pour que vous puissiez continuer à écrire"). This remark, however, does not appear in the letter.
Misattributed

Death

“Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.”

Voltaire

Citas, Candide (1759)

Fools

“The adjective is the enemy of the substantive.”

Voltaire

Attributed

“Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.”

Voltaire

Ils ne se servent de la pensée que pour autoriser leurs injustices, et n'emploient les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pensées.
Dialogue xiv, Le Chapon et la Poularde (l763); reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Citas

Men

“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.”

Voltaire

Il est bien malaisé (puisqu’il faut enfin m’expliquer) d’ôter à des insensés des chaînes qu’ils révèrent.
Le dîner du comte de Boulainvilliers (1767): Troisième Entretien
Citas

Fools

“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”

Voltaire Dictionnaire philosophique

Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde.
"Liberty of the Press," Dictionnaire philosophique (1785-1789)
Citas

World , Reading , Dance

“To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize?”

Voltaire

Kevin Strom, "All America Must Know the Terror That is Upon Us" http://www.amfirstbooks.com/IntroPages/ToolBarTopics/Articles/Featured_Authors/strom,_kevin/kevin_strom_works/Kevin_Strom_1991-1994/Kevin_A._Strom_19930814-ADV_All_America_Must_Know_the_Terror_That_Is_Upon_Us.html (1993)
Misattributed
Variant: "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."

Question