But for what purpose was the earth formed?" asked Candide. "To drive us mad," replied Martin.

— Voltaire

But how conceive a God perfect/ Who heaps his favors on the sons he loves, / Yet scatters evil with as large a hand?[Written after an earthquake in Lisbon killed over 15,000 people]

— Voltaire

But there must be some pleasure in condemning everything--in perceiving faults where others think they see beauties.'' You mean there is pleasure in having no pleasure.

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

By what incomprehensible mechanism are our organs held in subjection to sentiment and thought? How is it that a single melancholy idea shall disturb the whole course of the blood; and that the blood should in turn communicate irregularities to the human understanding? What is that unknown fluid which certainly exists and which, quicker and more active than light, flies in less than the twinkling of an eye into all the channels of life, —produces sensations, memory, joy or grief, reason or frenzy, —recalls with horror what we would choose to forget; and renders a thinking animal, either a subject of admiration, or an object of pity and compassion?

— Voltaire

Candide, who trembled like a philosopher, hid himself as well as he could during this heroic butchery.

— Voltaire

Can you really believe that a drop of urine is an infinity of monads, and that each of these has ideas, however obscure, of the universe as a whole?

— Voltaire

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

— Voltaire

Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.

— Voltaire

Common sense is not so common.

— Voltaire