Voltaire Quotes on Happiness
Voltaire approached happiness with characteristic wit and a firm refusal of easy answers, and the quotes gathered here show it. He doubted that human beings even know what they are seeking, comparing the pursuit of happiness to drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one, and questioning the bland counsel to be content: man ought to be content, it is said, but with what? Voltaire's own answer was moderate and practical. He rejected both extremes, holding that neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy, and he summed up his counsel in the celebrated closing line of Candide, let us cultivate our garden, which makes useful, absorbing work rather than speculation the nearest thing to happiness available. Drawn from Candide, his notebooks, and his shorter writings, these passages present happiness as elusive, best approached through moderation and work.
Quotes
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“Let us cultivate our garden.”
Candide, closing line -
“L'homme doit être content, dit-on; mais de quoi?”
Man ought to be content, it is said; but with what? | Pensées, Remarques, et Observations de Voltaire; ouvrage posthume (1802) Posthumously published "Thoughts, remarks and observations" believed to be by Voltaire -
“Man ought to be content, it is said; but with what?”
L'homme doit être content, dit-on; mais de quoi? -
“If there were only one religion in England there would be danger of despotism, if there were two they would cut each other's throats, but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness.”
1730s | Letters on England , letter 6, "On the Presbyterians", trans. Leonard Tancock (Penguin Books, 1980) p. 41, published first in English in 1733 -
“Use, do not abuse; as the wise man commands. I flee Epictetus and Petronius alike. Neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.”
1730s | "Cinquième discours: sur la nature de plaisir", Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738) -
“We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one.”
1750s | Notebooks (c.1735-c.1750) A variation on this remark can be found in the same notebook: Men who look for happiness are like drunkards who cannot find their house but know that they have one [ Les homm