Voltaire Philosophy Quotations

I have a simple philosophy: Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches. Alice Roosevelt Longworth Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them

When he who hears does not know what he who speaks means, and when he who speaks does not know what he himself means, that is philosophy.

The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important aims of philosophy.

I read these words which are the sum of all moral philosophy, and which cut short all the disputes of the casuists: When in doubt if an action is good or bad, refrain.

Why, since we are always complaining of our ills, are we constantly employed in redoubling them?

History should be written as philosophy.

The system of Descartes... seemed to give a plausible reason for all those phenomena; and this reason seemed more just, as it is simple and intelligible to all capacities. But in philosophy, a student ought to doubt of the things he fancies he understands too easily, as much as of those he does not understand.

Superstition sets the whole world in flames, but philosophy douses them.

We offer up prayers to god only because we have made him after our own image. We treat him like a pasha, or a sultan, who is capable of being exasperated and appeased.

The necessity of saying something, the embarrassment produced by the consciousness of having nothing to say, and the desire to exhibit ability, are three things sufficient to render even a great man ridiculous.

Pleasantry is never good on serious points, because it always regards subjects in that point of view in which it is not the purpose to consider them.

When one man speaks to another man who doesn't understand him, and when a man who's speaking no longer understands, it's metaphysics.