Home » Voltaire » 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.

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
Life Spirit Word

More Quotes By Voltaire

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.
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Death Right
Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.
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Common sense Nothing Reason Religion
Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.
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Illusion Today
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.
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Garden Man Rest Work
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.
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Cards Deals Life Order Play
The ear is the avenue to the heart.
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Heart
God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.
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God
My life is a struggle.
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Life Struggle
Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.
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Madness Optimism
All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.
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God Knowledge Men
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
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Art Class Government Money
The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.
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Heart
The best is the enemy of the good.
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Enemy
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
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Imagination Love Nature
To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.
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Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
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Man Wishes
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
Conscience Death Fear Life Nothing
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
Voltaire
Expectation Living
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
Voltaire
Drinking Eating God Necessity Nothing Pleasure
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Voltaire
Appreciation
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: “O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it.
Voltaire
Enemies God Prayer
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
Voltaire
Divorce Marriage
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Voltaire
Answers Man Questions
It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.
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Right Wrong
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
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Experience
We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.
Voltaire
The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.
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Being
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
Voltaire
Enemy Mankind Rest
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
Voltaire
Future Present
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
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First Illusion
Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.
Voltaire
Women
Nature has always had more force than education.
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Education Force Nature
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
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Privilege
The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.
Voltaire
Power Reason Religion
Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.
Voltaire
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Voltaire
Forbidden Numbers Sound
Fear follows crime and is its punishment.
Voltaire
Crime Fear Punishment
History should be written as philosophy.
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History Philosophy
He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.
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Age Misery Spirit
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.
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Existence Feeling Idea Power Soul Thinking
Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.
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Country Heart
One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.
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Merit Poetry Prose Will Words
God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.
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God Life Living
Common sense is not so common.
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Common sense
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.
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Error First Folly Humanity Law Nature Tolerance
We are rarely proud when we are alone.
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I hate women because they always know where things are.
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Hate Women
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
Ignorance Knowledge Spirit Superstition Thought Virginity Virtue
Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.
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Authority Injustice Men Speech Thought Thoughts
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.
Voltaire
Metaphysics