Top 10 Famous Quotes by Voltaire

Voltaire, born François-Marie Arouet on November 21, 1694, in Paris, was a prominent French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for his wit, advocacy of civil liberties, and criticism of the established religious and political systems. Voltaire's most famous work, "Candide" (1759), is a satirical novella that critiques blind optimism and the folly of societal norms. He was a prolific writer, producing plays, essays, novels, and letters that championed freedom of speech, separation of church and state, and the importance of reason and critical thinking. Voltaire's sharp wit and incisive commentary made him a key figure in the Enlightenment. He passed away on May 30, 1778, but his ideas continued to influence modern thought on civil rights and individual freedom.

Top 10 Famous Quotes by Voltaire 

1. "Common sense is not so common."
— Voltaire

2. "Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her; but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game."
— Voltaire

3. "Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference."
— Voltaire

4. "What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature."
— Voltaire

5. "Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it."
— Voltaire

6. "So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one’s fatherland is to wish evil to one’s neighbors. The citizen of the universe would be the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer."
— Voltaire

7. "The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us."
— Voltaire

8. "It requires twenty years for a man to rise from the vegetable state in which he is within his mother’s womb, and from the pure animal state which is the lot of his early childhood, to the state when the maturity of reason begins to appear. It has required thirty centuries to learn a little about his structure. It would need eternity to learn something about his soul. It takes an instant to kill him."
— Voltaire

9. "It is difficult to free people from the chains they revere."
— Voltaire

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