Voltaire Quotes

An epigram is a flashlight of a truth; a witticism, truth laughing at itself.

A fine quotation is a diamond in the hand of a man of wit and a pebble in the hand of a fool.

Neither irony nor sarcasm is argument.

I never failed to convince an audience that the best thing they could do was to go away.

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

One horselaugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms.

Eloquence and wisdom are by no means the same thing. They are sometimes united, but not necessarily ; perhaps never when eloquence is the mere gift of nature rather than the slow result of nature and art conjoined. A ready supply of glittering language and an ardent conception, i. e. a fertile imagination, and quick feelings, united to a retentive memory—these are together quite sufficient to make an orator, but by no means to make a wise man; to make a speaker or even a leader in a popular assembly, but not necessarily a statesman.

My favorite comedians are just presenting an argument, and they're doing it in a funny way.

Age before beauty, and pearls before swine.

Sometimes a witticism has no truth behind it.

A proverb is good sense brought to a point.

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.

Next to being witty, the best thing is being able to quote another's wit.

His foe was folly and his weapon wit.

A proverb is the wisdom of many and the wit of one.

Eloquence, n. The art of orally persuading fools that white is the color that it appears to be. It includes the gift of making any color appear white.

This has been a most wonderful evening. Gertrude has said things tonight it will take her 10 years to understand.

If I had two faces, do you think I would be wearing this one.

A proverb is one man’s wit and all men’s wisdom.

Ridicule is more powerful than any argument.

As reason is the glory of man, so the lamp of reason is eloquence.

Analogies prove nothing, that is quite true, but they can make one feel more at home.

And sometimes you can make your point better with comedy than you can through shouting about it.

APHORISM, n. Predigested wisdom. The flabby wine-skin of his brain Yields to some pathologic strain, And voids from its unstored abysm The driblet of an aphorism. "The Mad Philosopher," 1697

Jokes are unanswerable objections.