“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.
“Si DIEU n’existait pas, il faudrait l’inventer.” Mais toute la nature nous crie qu’il existe; qu’il y a une Intelligence Suprême, un Pouvoir Immense, un Ordre admirable, et tout nous instruit de notre dépendance.
Voltaire quoting himself in his Letter to Prince Frederick William of Prussia (28 November 1770), translated by S.G. Tallentyre, Voltaire in His Letters (1919)
All of the other people have committed crimes, the Jews are the only ones who have boasted about committing them. They are, all of them, born with raging fanaticism in their hearts, just as the Bretons and the Germans are born with blond hair. I would not be in the least bit surprised if these people would not some day become deadly to the human race.
Tous les autres peuples ont commis des crimes, les Juifs sont les seuls qui s’en soient vantés. Ils sont tous nés avec la rage du fanatisme dans le cœur, comme les Bretons et les Germains naissent avec des cheveux blonds. Je ne serais point étonné que cette nation ne fût un jour funeste au genre humain.
Lettres de Memmius a Cicéron (1771)
The best is the enemy of the good.
Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.
“La Bégueule” (Contes, 1772)
Variant translations:
The perfect is the enemy of the good.
The better is the enemy of the good.Note: translation of earlier traditional Italian Il meglio è nemico del bene, attested since 1603: Proverbi italiani (Italian Proverbs), by Orlando Pescetti (c. 1556 – c. 1624) (p. 30, p. 45)
Note: Voltaire cites this saying in his poem “La Bégueule” (“The prude woman”) while ascribing it to an unnamed “Italian sage”; he also gives the saying (without attribution) in Italian (Il meglio è l’inimico del bene enemy”) in the article “Art Dramatique” (“Dramatic Art”, 1770) in the Dictionnaire philosophique
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
J’aime fort la vérité, mais je n’aime point du tout le martyre.
Letter to Jean le Rond d’Alembert (8 February 1776)
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)
Let the punishments of criminals be useful. A hanged man is good for nothing; a man condemned to public works still serves the country, and is a living lesson.
Que les supplices des criminels soient utiles. Un homme pendu n’est bon à rien, et un homme condamné aux ouvrages publics sert encore la patrie, et est une leçon vivante.
“Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws,” Dictionnaire philosophique (1785-1789)
Note: The Dictionnaire philosophique was a posthumously published collection of articles combining the Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (published under various editions and titles from 1764 to 1777), the Questions sur l’Encyclopédie (published from 1770 to 1774), articles written for the Encyclopédie and the Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, the manuscript known as l’Opinion sur l’alphabet and a number of previously published miscellaneous articles.
Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde.
“Liberty of the Press,” Dictionnaire philosophique (1785-1789)
All philosophical sects have run aground on the reef of moral and physical ill. It only remains for us to confess that GOD, having acted for the best, had not been able to do better.
Toutes les sectes des philosophes ont échoué contre l’écueil du mal physique et moral. Il ne reste que d’avouer que DIEU ayant agi pour le mieux n’a pu agir mieux.
“Power, Omnipotence,” Dictionnaire philosophique (1785-1789)
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)
Note: This is from a volume of posthumously published “Thoughts, remarks and observations” believed to be by Voltaire.
Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them.
La superstition met le monde entier en flammes; la philosophie les éteint.
Dictionnaire philosophique (1822), “Superstition”
The public is a ferocious beast: one must chain it up or flee from it.
Le public est une bête féroce: il faut l’enchaîner ou la fuir.
Letter to Mademoiselle Quinault, quoted in Charles Sainte-Beuve, “Lettres inédites de Voltaire,” Causeries de Lundi (20 October 1856)
The king has sent me some of his dirty linen to wash; I will wash yours another time.
Reply to General Manstein. Voltaire writes to his niece Dennis, July 24, 1752, “Voilà le roi qui m’envoie son linge à blanchir”; reported in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Ancient histories, as one of our wits has said, are but fables that have been agreed upon.
Toutes les histoires anciennes, comme le disait un de nos beaux esprits, ne sont que des fables convenues.
Jeannot et Colin (1764)
Love is of all the passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart, and the body.
L’amour est de toutes les passions la plus forte, parce qu’elle attaque à la fois la tête, le cœur et le corps.
Le Dernier Volume Des Œuvres De Voltaire: Contes – Comédie – Pensées – Poésies – Lettres (1862)
Page 3 of 5
