La superstition est à la religion ce que l’astrologie est à l’astronomie, la fille très folle d’une mère très sage. Ces deux filles ont longtemps subjugué toute la terre.
"Whether it is useful to maintain the people in superstition," Treatise on Toleration (1763)
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Voltaire: Trending quotes (page 7)
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On en trouve [l'argent] toujours quand il s’agit d’aller faire tuer des hommes sur la frontière: il n’y en a plus quand il faut les sauver.
"Charity" (1770)
Citas, Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770–1774)
“Nothing is so common as to imitate one's enemies, and to use their weapons.”
Rien n’est si ordinaire que d’imiter ses ennemis, et d’employer leurs armes.
"Oracles" (1770)
Citas, Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770–1774)
La nôtre [religion] est sans contredit la plus ridicule, la plus absurde, et la plus sanguinaire qui ait jamais infecté le monde.<p>Votre Majesté rendra un service éternel au genre humain en détruisant cette infâme superstition, je ne dis pas chez la canaille, qui n’est pas digne d’être éclairée, et à laquelle tous les jougs sont propres; je dis chez les honnêtes gens, chez les hommes qui pensent, chez ceux qui veulent penser... Je ne m’afflige de toucher à la mort que par mon profond regret de ne vous pas seconder dans cette noble entreprise, la plus belle et la plus respectable qui puisse signaler l’esprit humain.
Letters of Voltaire and Frederick the Great (New York: Brentano's, 1927), transl. Richard Aldington, letter 156 from Voltaire to Frederick II of Prussia, 5 January 1767 http://perso.orange.fr/dboudin/VOLTAIRE/45/1767/6651.html
Often misquoted as "Christianity is...", while in the context, Voltaire was referring specifically to Catholicism.
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“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer.
Variant translation: If there was no God, It would be necessary to invent him.
Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs (10 November 1770)
For the background of the quote see this source: Yeh, Anthony (July 3, 2011). "What did Voltaire mean when he said that "if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him"?" http://archive.is/Rt53S. Quora. Archived from the original https://www.quora.com/What-did-Voltaire-mean-when-he-said-that-if-God-did-not-exist-it-would-be-necessary-to-invent-him on October 27, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
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En général, l’art du gouvernement consiste à prendre le plus d’argent qu’on peut à une grande partie des citoyens, pour le donner à une autre partie.
"Money" (1770)
Citas, Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770–1774)
Un ministre est excusable du mal qu’il fait, lorsque le gouvernail de l’État est forcé dans sa main par les tempêtes; mais dans le calme il est coupable de tout le bien qu’il ne fait pas.
Le Siècle de Louis XIV, ch. VI: "État de la France jusqu’à la mort du cardinal Mazarin en 1661" (1752) Unsourced paraphrase or variant translation: Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
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“Defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies.”
Garantissez-moi de mes amis, écrivait Gourville proscrit et fugitif, je saurai me défendre de mes ennemis. ("Defend me from my friends," wrote Gourville, exile and fugitive, "I can defend myself from my enemies.") — Gabriel Sénac de Meilhan, Considérations sur l'esprit et les moeurs (1788): "De L'Amitié." Sénac de Meilhan was quoting Jean Hérault, sieur de Gourville (1625 - 1703).
The remark has often been attributed to Voltaire and to Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars.
Misattributed
From the Philosophic Dictionary, as quoted in The life of Pasteur http://archive.org/stream/scienceandscient029493mbp/scienceandscient029493mbp_djvu.txt (1902)
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“The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”
According to The Veterinarian (Monthly Journal of Veterinary Science) for 1851, edited by Mr. Percivall, this is Ben Jonson's "satirical definition of physic".
Misattributed
Il faut vingt ans pour mener l’homme de l’état de plante où il est dans le ventre de sa mère, et de l’état de pur animal, qui est le partage de sa première enfance, jusqu’à celui où la maturité de la raison commence à poindre. Il a fallu trente siècles pour connaître un peu sa structure. Il faudrait l’éternité pour connaître quelque chose de son âme. Il ne faut qu’un instant pour le tuer.
"Man: General Reflection on Man" (1771)
Citas, Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770–1774)
“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
Stanisław Jerzy Lec, More Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane nowe] (1964)
Misattributed
“To hold a pen is to be at war.”
Qui plume a, guerre a.
Letter to Jeanne-Grâce Bosc du Bouchet, comtesse d'Argental (4 October 1748)
This remark also appears in a letter to Marie-Louise Denis (22 May 1752): To hold a pen is to be at war. This world is one vast temple consecrated to discord [Qui plume a, guerre a. Ce monde est un vaste temple dédié à la discorde].
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“Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.”
Rien n'est plus contraire à la religion et au clergé qu'une tête sensée et raisonnable. — Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach, Théologie portative, ou Dictionnaire abrégé de la religion chrétienne (1768): Folie
Misattributed
As quoted in Hefley What's so great about the Bible (1969), p. 30
George Sweeting Living in a Dying World (1972), p. 59
Related: "...only 50 years after his death the Geneva Bible Society used his press and house to produce stacks of Bibles."
Geisler, Norman L. and Nix, William E., A General Introduction to the Bible (Chicago, Moody Press, 1968), p. 123-124. See also McDowell The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict http://www.gracechapelsomd.org/books/The_New_Evidence_That_Demands_A_Verdict.pdf (1999).
According to The Open Society, Vol. 77 (Autumn 2004) Voltaire's House and The Bible Society http://www.nzarh.org.nz/journal/2004v77n1aut.pdf, p. 14: "The myth seems to have originated from an 1849 Annual Report of the American Bible Society where the relevant section reads: Voltaire... predicted that in the nineteenth century the Bible would be known only as a relic of antiquity. He could say, while on this topic, that the Hotel Gibbon (so-called from that celebrated infidel) is now become the very depository of the Bible Society, and the individual who superintends the building is an agent for the sale and receipt of the books. The very ground this illustrious scoffer often paced, has now become the scene of the operation and success of an institution established for the diffusion of the very book against which his efforts were directed."
Sidney Collett, in The Scripture of Truth (1905), apparently misrepresents this report by stating: "Voltaire, the noted French infidel who died in 1778, said that in one hundred years from his time Christianity would be swept into history. But what has happened? Only twenty-five years after his death the [British & Foreign Bible] Society was founded. His printing press, with which he printed his infidel literature, has since been used to print copies of the Word of God; and the very house in which he lived has been stacked with Bibles of the Geneva Bible Society."
Regarding Bible-printing in Voltaire's homes, Theodore Besterman (former director of the "Institut et Muse Voltaire" in Geneva) stated, "None of Voltaire's homes is or ever has been connected in any way with any Bible Society. This applies to all Voltaire's homes, whether in France, Germany, Switzerland, or anywhere else". http://www.nzarh.org.nz/journal/2004v77n1aut.pdf.
Misattributed
Variant: "Another century and there will not be a Bible on earth!"
“Man ought to be content, it is said; but with what?”
L'homme doit être content, dit-on; mais de quoi?
Pensées, Remarques, et Observations de Voltaire; ouvrage posthume (1802)
This is from a volume of posthumously published "Thoughts, remarks and observations" believed to be by Voltaire. http://www.voltaire-integral.com/Html/31/04_Pensees.html
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“I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.”
Je meurs en adorant Dieu, en aimant mes amis, en ne haïssant pas mes ennemis et en détestant la superstition.
Déclaration de Voltaire, note to his secretary, Jean-Louis Wagnière (28 February 1778)
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Le doute n'est pas un état bien agréable, mais l'assurance est un état ridicule.
Ce qui révolte le plus dans le Système de la nature ( après la façon de faire des anguilles avec de la farine), c'est l'audace avec laquelle il décide qu'il n'y a point de Dieu , sans avoir seulement tenté d'en prouver l'impossibilité.
Letter to Frederick William, Prince of Prussia (28 November 1770). English: in S.G. Tallentyre (ed.), Voltaire in His Letters. New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1919. p. 232. French: Au prince royal de prusse, le 28 novembre, in M. Palissot (ed.), Oeuvres de Voltaire: Lettres Choisies du Roi de Prusse et de M. de Voltaire, Tome II. Paris : Chez Baudoiun, 1802. p. 419
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“The superfluous, a very necessary thing.”
Le superflu, chose très nécessaire.
Variant translation: The superfluous is very necessary.
Poem Le Mondain (1736)
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The critical review, or annals of literature, Volume XXVI http://books.google.es/books?id=aItKAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=es#v=onepage&q&f=false, by A Society of Gentlemen (1768) p. 450
Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Voltaire / Quotes
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