Authors / Voltaire

Voltaire quotes

1694–1778 · French Enlightenment writer

François-Marie Arouet, called Voltaire, fought censorship and the church with jokes. His most famous line about free speech was written by his biographer in 1906.

4 real · 3 not theirs

Really theirs

4 quotes traced to Voltaire's own work or a reliable witness.

Sourced

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

Source: Epistle to the Author of the Book of the Three Impostors (1770)

Sourced

We must cultivate our garden.

Source: Candide, final line (1759)

Sourced

The best is the enemy of the good.

Source: La Bégueule (1772), quoting an Italian proverb

Sourced

Common sense is not so common.

Source: Philosophical Dictionary (1764)

Not theirs

3 famous lines credited to Voltaire that are misquoted, unsourced or belong to someone else.

Not theirs

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Actually: Evelyn Beatrice Hall, summing up Voltaire's attitude in The Friends of Voltaire (1906).

Not theirs

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

Actually: Traced to the American white-nationalist writer Kevin Alfred Strom (1993). Nothing to do with Voltaire.

Not theirs

Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.

Actually: Pierre-Marc-Gaston de Lévis, Maximes et réflexions (1808).