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

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.
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Faults Flies Love
Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.
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It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.
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Will
If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him.
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Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
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First Illusion
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
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Thoughts Words
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.
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Harm Life Power
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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In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.
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Man
He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.
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To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.
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Society therefore is an ancient as the world.
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Society World
Fear follows crime and is its punishment.
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Crime Fear Punishment
No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
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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
I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.
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Feet Lie
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
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Fools Reason
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
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Money Question Religion
An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
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Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
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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
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
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Let us read and let us dance – two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.
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Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
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All styles are good except the tiresome kind.
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The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.
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Being
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.
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Angels God Pleasure
The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.
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Pride
The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.
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Dream World
The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
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Assassination Democracy Government
Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
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Business is the salt of life.
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Business Life
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
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God
Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.
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Life Work
Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.
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Will
As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.
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People Will
Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.
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Women
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.
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When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.
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Metaphysics
Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.
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Laws Support Virtue
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.
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Expectation Living
Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.
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Christian Men Now Tolerance
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: “O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it.
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The superfluous, a very necessary thing.
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The best is the enemy of the good.
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Enemy
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.
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Perfection Time
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
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God
Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.
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Clever tyrants are never punished.
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It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.
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Blind Love Self