“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

Original

Ils ne se servent de la pensée que pour autoriser leurs injustices, et n'emploient les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pensées.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts." by Voltaire?
Voltaire photo
Voltaire 167
French writer, historian, and philosopher 1694–1778

Related quotes

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Either/Or Part I, Swenson Translation p. 19 Variations include: People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought, which they avoid. People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
1840s, Either/Or (1843)

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley photo

“I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me?”

The monster to Robert Walton
Frankenstein (1818)
Context: You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But in the detail which he gave you of them he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured wasting in impotent passions. For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were forever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me?

Sören Kierkegaard photo
Edward Young photo

“Where Nature’s end of language is declin’d,
And men talk only to conceal the mind.”

Edward Young (1683–1765) English poet

Satire II, l. 207.
Love of Fame (1725-1728)

Lois Lowry photo
Ayn Rand photo

“Men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

John Ruskin photo
Oliver Goldsmith photo

“The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.”

Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) Irish physician and writer

No. 3 (Oct. 20, 1759).
The Bee (1759)

José Saramago photo

“Words were not given to man in order to conceal his thoughts.”

Source: The Cave (2000), p. 124

Emil M. Cioran photo

Related topics