Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do.
Voltaire
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
Voltaire
Age: 84 †
Born: 1694
Born: February 20
Died: 1778
Died: May 30
Author
Autobiographer
Correspondent
Diarist
Encyclopédistes
Essayist
Historian
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
Poet Lawyer
Political Scientist
Paris
France
François-Marie Arouet
Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire
Francois Marie Arouet
Dictator of Letters
Government
Calm
Everyman
Good
Goodness
Helm
Men
Failure
Minister
Life
Humor
Forced
Hand
Storm
Goal
Guilty
State
Guilt
Funny
Harm
Excusable
More quotes by Voltaire
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
Voltaire
It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge.
Voltaire
An admiral should be put to death now and then to encourage the others.
Voltaire
The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.
Voltaire
The mirror is a worthless invention. The only way to truly see yourself is in the reflection of someone else's eyes.
Voltaire
It is proved...that things cannot be other than they are, for since everything was made for a purpose, it follows that everything is made for the best purpose.
Voltaire
Answer me, you who believe that animals are only machines. Has nature arranged for this animal to have all the machinery of feelings only in order for it not to have any at all?
Voltaire
The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.
Voltaire
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
Voltaire
It is not enough to be exceptionally mad, licentious and fanatical in order to win a great reputation it is still necessary to arrive on the scene at the right time.
Voltaire
If God did not exist, He would have to be invented. But all nature cries aloud that he does exist: that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it.
Voltaire
The ear is the avenue to the heart.
Voltaire
When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living. Tecumseh Appreciation is a wonderful thing it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Voltaire
The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
Voltaire
Now is not the time for making new enemies.
Voltaire
Religion may be purified. This great work was begun two hundred years ago: but men can only bear light to come in upon them by degrees.
Voltaire
What! Have you no monks to teach, to dispute, to govern, to intrigue and to burn people who do not agree with them?
Voltaire
I am the best-natured creature in the world, and yet I have already killed three, and of these three two were priests.
Voltaire
The instinct of a man is to pursue everything that flies from him, and to fly from all that pursue him.
Voltaire
There are no sects in geometry.
Voltaire
