“Opinions have caused more ills than the plague or earthquakes on this little globe of ours.”
Les opinions ont plus causé de maux sur ce petit globe que la peste et les tremblements de terre.
Letter to Élie Bertrand (5 January 1759)
Citas
"Abuse of Words" http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35621/35621-h/35621-h.htm (1764)
C.f. Locke: "The names of simple ideas are not capable of any definition; the names of all complex ideas are. It has not, that I know, been yet observed by anybody what words are, and what are not, capable of being defined; the want whereof is (as I am apt to think) not seldom the occasion of great wrangling and obscurity in men's discourses, whilst some demand definitions of terms that cannot be defined; and others think they ought not to rest satisfied in an explication made by a more general word, and its restriction, (or to speak in terms of art, by a genus and difference), when, even after such definition, made according to rule, those who hear it have often no more a clear conception of the meaning of the word than they had before."
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) Book III http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke1/Book3.html, chapter 4
Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)
Le divorce est probablement de la même date à peu près que le mariage. Je crois pourtant que le mariage est de quelques semaines plus ancien.
"Divorce" (1771)
Citas, Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770–1774)
Une seule partie de la physique occupe la vie de plusieurs hommes, et les laisse souvent mourir dans l'incertitude.
"A Madame la Marquise du Châtelet, Avant-Propos," Eléments de Philosophie de Newton (1738)
Citas
"Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer."
Mais toute la nature nous crie qu'il existe; qu'il y a une intelligence suprême, un pouvoir immense, un ordre admirable, et tout nous instruit de notre dépendance.
Voltaire quoting himself in his Letter to Prince Frederick William of Prussia (28 November 1770), translated by S.G. Tallentyre, Voltaire in His Letters (1919)
Citas
Tous les hommes seraient donc nécessairement égaux, s’ils étaient sans besoins. La misère attachée à notre espèce subordonne un homme à un autre homme: ce n’est pas l’inégalité qui est un malheur réel, c’est la dépendance.
"Equality" (1764)
Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)
“If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor.”
Si Dieu nous a faits à son image, nous le lui avons bien rendu.
Notebooks (c.1735-c.1750)
Citas
La morale est la même chez tous les hommes, donc elle vient de Dieu; le culte est différent, donc il est l’ouvrage des hommes.
"Atheist" (1764)
Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)
“All mortals are equal; it is not their birth,
But virtue itself that makes the difference.”
Les mortels sont égaux; ce n'est pas la naissance,
C'est la seule vertu qui fait la différence.
Ériphyle Act II, scene I (1732); these lines were also later used in Voltaire's Mahomet, Act I, scene IV (1741)
Variant translations:
Men are equal; it is not birth, it is virtue alone that makes them differ.
As quoted in Beautiful Thoughts from French and Italian Authors (1866) edited by Craufurd Tait Ramage, p. 363 https://books.google.com/books?id=nDErAAAAYAAJ
Men are equal; it is not birth
But virtue that makes the difference
Citas
“If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?”
Citas, Candide (1759)
“Man is free at the instant he wants to be.”
L'homme est libre au moment qu'il veut l'être.
Source Brutus, act II, scene I (1730)
Citas
Questions sur les miracles (1765)
Widely used paraphrase: "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities".
“I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.”
J'aime fort la vérité, mais je n'aime point du tout le martyre.
Letter to Jean le Rond d'Alembert (8 February 1776)
Citas
“"You're a bitter man," said Candide. "That's because I've lived," said Martin.”
Citas, Candide (1759)
Que les supplices des criminels soient utiles. Un homme pendu n’est bon à rien, et un homme condamné aux ouvrages publics sert encore la patrie, et est une leçon vivante.
"Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws," Dictionnaire philosophique (1785-1789)
The Dictionnaire philosophique was a posthumously published collection of articles combining the Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (published under various editions and titles from 1764 to 1777), the Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (published from 1770 to 1774), articles written for the Encyclopédie and the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, the manuscript known as l'Opinion sur l'alphabet and a number of previously published miscellaneous articles.
Citas
“If you want good laws, burn those you have and make new ones.”
Voulez-vous avoir de bonnes lois; brûlez les vôtres, et faites-en de nouvelles.
"Laws" http://www.voltaire-integral.com/Html/19/lois.htm (1765)
Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)
Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain n'était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire.
Essai sur l'histoire générale et sur les mœurs et l'esprit des nations, Chapter 70 (1756)
Citas
“I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.”
As attributed in More Random Walks in Science : An Anthology (1982) by Robert L. Weber, p. 65
Attributed
“Love truth, but pardon error.”
Aime la vérité, mais pardonne à l'erreur.
"Deuxième discours: de la liberté," Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)
Citas