Voltaire Life Quotations

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.

We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.

The ear is the avenue to the heart.

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.

Religion was instituted to make us happy in this life and in the other. What must we do to be happy in the life to come? Be just.

Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.

The great consolation in life is to say what one thinks.

Self love is the instrument of our preservation.

Present opportunities are not to be neglected; they rarely visit us twice.

The greatest consolation in life is to say what one thinks.

Common sense is not so common.

Love truth, but pardon error.

Liberty of thought is the life of the soul.

I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?

You have no control over the hand that life deals you, but how you play that hand is entirely up to you.

‎Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.

To make a vow for life is to make oneself a slave.

Paradise is where I am

My life is a struggle.

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!

There is only one morality, as there is only one geometry.

Shun idleness. It is rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.

This is no time to make new enemies.

Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing, and love those who love you.

To enjoy life we must touch much of it lightly.

Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.

My life's dream has been a perpetual nightmare.

I have wanted to kill myself a million times, but somehow I am still in love with life.

What a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide. "That is because I know what life is," said Martin.

Who are you, Nature? I live in you; for fifty years I have been seeking you, and I have not found you yet.