Voltaire Quotes on Virtue
Francois-Marie Arouet, known by his pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit and his advocacy of civil liberties. This page collects quotes attributed to Voltaire on the topic of virtue, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“The best is the enemy of the good.”
Il est triste que souvent, pour être bon patriote, on soit l'ennemi du reste des hommes. -
Attributed to Voltaire:
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
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“Let us cultivate our garden.”
Candide, closing line -
Attributed to Voltaire:
“All people are good except those who are idle.”
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“It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.”
1750s | Notebooks (c.1735-c.1750) Note: This quotation and the three that follow directly below are from the so-called Leningrad Notebook, also known as Le Sottisier; it is one of several posthumously publish