As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.

Meaning of the quote

The quote suggests that when people believe in things that don't make sense or are not true, they are more likely to do terrible things. If we believe in ideas that are unreasonable or nonsensical, we are more likely to harm others. The message is that we should be careful about what we believe and make sure it is based on facts, not absurdities.

About Voltaire

Voltaire was a renowned French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, satirist, and historian, known for his wit, criticism of Christianity, and advocacy of civil liberties. He was a prolific author, producing over 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets, and his best-known work, Candide, is a satirical novella that comments on the events and philosophies of his time.

More about the author

More quotes from Voltaire

Injustice in the end produces independence.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Nature has always had more force than education.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

I have only ever made one prayer to God, a very short one: O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Let us read and let us dance – two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is not known precisely where angels dwell whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God’s pleasure that we should be informed of their abode.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

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

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

A witty saying proves nothing.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry always gets the best of the argument.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

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

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

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

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

History should be written as philosophy.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

To hold a pen is to be at war.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Fear follows crime and is its punishment.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

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

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Better is the enemy of good.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Tears are the silent language of grief.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say; but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The ancients recommended us to sacrifice to the Graces, but Milton sacrificed to the Devil.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child’s board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Ice-cream is exquisite – what a pity it isn’t illegal.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

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

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

All styles are good except the tiresome kind.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Common sense is not so common.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

We cannot wish for that we know not.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

I hate women because they always know where things are.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Business is the salt of life.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

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

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The ear is the avenue to the heart.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

My life is a struggle.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

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

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

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

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Men hate the individual whom they call avaricious only because nothing can be gained from him.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The best is the enemy of the good.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The superfluous, a very necessary thing.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

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

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

We are rarely proud when we are alone.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

In this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies – it is the first law of nature.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

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

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Weakness on both sides is, as we know, the motto of all quarrels.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Clever tyrants are never punished.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Society therefore is an ancient as the world.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)

Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.

Voltaire

French writer, historian, and philosopher (1694-1778)