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Quotations from
French philosopher Voltaire [1694-1778]
{ real name François-Marie Arouet }
 | The French philosopher known as Voltaire wrote more than 21,000 letters and over two thousand books and pamphlets. After exile to England for several years, he lived in France, Prussia, Geneva, and then established a home at Ferney on the French border, where he resided for his last twenty years - his guests included James Boswell, Adam Smith, Giacomo Casanova, Edward Gibbon, and Benjamin Franklin. With all of Voltaire's literary output, he is most famous for the stageplay "Candide" [1759], which has been imitated or adapted in many forms, including stageplays, an operetta, Terry Southern's novel "Candy" [1958], television (at least 6 times), and feature films (at least 3). |
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connected with the revolutionary "Working Minds Philosophy of Empowerment" created by G.E. Nordell.
After WMail Issue #72 in October 2007, essays & quotations & news are being posted to the Dateline Chamesa blog
Voltaire entry at Wikipedia
Château de Cirey official website - residence of Voltaire 1734-49
Château de Voltaire à Ferney official website - residence of Voltaire 1759-78
French-language website for La Société Voltaire [est. 2000]
Maison d'Être Philosophy Bookstore's French philosopher Voltaire [1694-1778] Page
 | "Voltaire Premium Collection: Novels, Philosophical Writings, Historical Works, Plays, Poems & Letters - 60+ Works in One Volume, Illustrated" for Kindle [2016]
Kindle Edition from e-artnow [3/2016] for 99¢ {sic} includes eight novels: "Candide", "The Huron", "The Man of Forty Crowns", "Micromegas", "The Princess of Babylon", "The Sage and The Atheist", "The White Bull", and "Zadig"; 15 stories; dialogues; 21 stageplays; poems collection; philosophical works: "A Philosophical Dictionary", "Letters On England", and "Treatise On Tolerance"; historical works: "Age of Louis XIV" and "The History of Peter The Great, Emperor of Russia"; letters collections; literary criticism by Lytton Strachey & Robert Green Ingersoll; and four biographies |
“Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.” {Issue #22}
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“Men will not be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” {Issue #36}
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“If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?” (in "Candide", 1759) {Issue #43}
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“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power
to make you commit injustices.” {Issue #59 & blog 10/2017}
second version: “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” {blog 5/2015 & 7/2018}
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“God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.” {Issue #62}
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“It is the characteristic of the most stringent censorships that they give credibility
to the opinions [that] they attack.” {blog 2/2008}
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“Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.” {blog 2/2009}
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“In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one
party of the citizens to give to the other.” (in 1764) {blog 10/2009}
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“Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.” {blog 5/2010 & 5/2017}
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“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” {blog 4/2011}
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“To succeed in this world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.” {blog 4/2011}
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“The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.” {blog 12/2011}
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“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished – unless they kill in large numbers
and to the sound of trumpets.” {blog 10/2012}
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“God created woman to tame man.” {blog 10/2012}
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“Men argue. Nature acts.” {blog 11/2013}
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“Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” {blog 11/2014}
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“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous'. And God granted it.” {blog 6/2016}
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“It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” {blog 9/2016}
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“Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.” {blog 10/2016}
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“I have chosen to be happy because it is good for my health.” {blog 9/2017 & 2/2021}
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“Love truth, and pardon error.” {blog 12/2019}
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“Every man is guilty of all the good [that] he didn't do.” {blog 5/2022}
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“Everything [that] you say should be true, but not everything true should be said.” {blog 12/2023}
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“Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.” {blog 12/2023}
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“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.” {blog 4/2024}
Voltaire Quotations Not Yet Used on Blog
"Dreams, which tease the mind with flying shades, do not come by divine command from ethereal sanctuaries, but each makes his own."
"The more I read, the more I meditate; and the more [knowledge that] I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing."
"The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude."
"It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue."
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
"When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion."
"It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one."
"Almost nothing great has ever been done in the world except by the genius and firmness of a single man "Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world."
"Prejudices are what fools use for reason."
"Originality is nothing but judicious imitation."
"Writing is the painting of the voice."
"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well."
combating the prejudices of the multitude."
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