Voltaire Quotes

It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

The ideal of progress, freedom of thought, and the decline of ecclesiastical power go together.

The qualities most needed are charity and tolerance, not some form of fanatical faith such as is offered to us by the various rampant isms

No human trait deserves less tolerance in everyday life, and gets less, than intolerance.

When men can no longer be theists, they must, if they are civilized, become humanists.

I always thought of myself as a moderate liberal, a fighter for peace and justice. I never thought of myself as being all that far out.

What's important to me is people just being people.

Discrimination is not liberal. Arguing against discrimination is not intolerance.

You are welcoming to everyone when you're a liberal. You do not have a small mind.

I'm someone who believes in 'live and let live,' and that applies to everything.

An aged rabbi, crazed with liberalism, once said to me, We Jews are just ordinary human beings. Only a bit more so!

A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: 'Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?' We must always consider the person.

I don't believe in any kind of fundamentalism.

I think my politics are just inclined to be empathetic and humanistic. I grew up with so many different kinds of people with different politics, different religion, no religion, no politics, education, no education, and I was infatuated with all of them.

Acceptance is not love. You love a person because he or she has lovable traits, but you accept everybody just because they're alive and human.

Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. From that divine tear and from that human smile is derived the grace of present civilization.

I'm very much an Enlightenment kind of guy.

Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.

You can walk through life believing in the goodness of the world, or walk through life afraid of anyone who thinks different than you and trying to convert them to your way of thinking.

Voltaire lighted a torch and gave to others the sacred flame. The light still shines and will as long as man loves liberty and seeks for truth.

Before anything else, we need a new age of Enlightenment. Our present political systems must relinquish their claims on truth, justice and freedom and have to replace them with the search for truth, justice, freedom and reason.

I don't lead a particularly Bohemian existence. The main criterion for me is not to be judgemental of other people so long as what they do is not harmful or offensive to others.

It's very easy to be judgmental until you know someone's truth.

Criticism alone can sever the root of materialism, fatalism, atheism, free-thinking, fanaticism, and superstition, which can be injurious universally.

I have no religion, and at times I wish all religions at the bottom of the sea. He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government. My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go. Let them worship as they will; every man can follow his own conscience, provided it does not interfere with sane reason or bid him act against the liberty of his fellow-men.