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There are two things for which animals are to be envied: they know nothing of future evils, or of what people say about them.
Voltaire
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Voltaire
Age: 84 †
Born: 1694
Born: February 20
Died: 1778
Died: May 30
Author
Autobiographer
Correspondent
Diarist
Encyclopédistes
Essayist
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Poet
Poet Lawyer
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Paris
France
François-Marie Arouet
Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire
Francois Marie Arouet
Dictator of Letters
Animal
Future
Evil
Two
Nothing
Envied
Things
Evils
People
Pet
Animals
More quotes by Voltaire
Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.
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It is reported in the supplement of the council of Nicæan that the fathers, being very perplexed to know which were the cryphal or apocryphal books of the Old and New Testaments, put them all pell-mell on an altar, and the books to be rejected fell to the ground. It is a pity that this eloquent procedure has not survived.
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You will notice that in all disputes between Christians since the birth of the Church, Rome has always favored the doctrine which most completely subjugated the human mind and annihilated reason.
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By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.
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It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
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If it's too silly to be said, it can always be sung.
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All pleasantry should be short and it might even be as well were the serious short also.
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It is ourselves alone that make our days lucky or unlucky. Away, then, with a vain prejudice, the invention of the priesthood, which has been transmitted by our ancestors to an ignorant people.
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Society therefore is an ancient as the world.
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The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.
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You see, Mademoiselle, I have experience, I know the world. To pass the time, why don't you ask every passenger to tell you his life's story? And if there is a single one among them who has never cursed his life, who has not often told himself that he was the unhappiest of men, then you may throw me overboard, headfirst!
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God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart to the finest verses chanted by the wicked.
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Why, since we are always complaining of our ills, are we constantly employed in redoubling them?
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The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.
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Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.
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The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom.
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Prejudice is an opinion without judgment.
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Nothing could be smarter, more splendid, more brilliant, better drawn up than two armies. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, cannons, formed a harmony such as never been heard in hell.
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We have our arts, the ancients had theirs... We cannot raise obelisks a hundred feet high in a single piece, but our meridians are more exact.
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Once your faith persuades you to believe what your intelligence declares absurd, beware, lest you likewise sacrifice your reason in the conduct of your life.
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