

“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs · 1770
Traced to Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs (1770).
More from Voltaire
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.”
Voltaire
Letter to Frederick William, Prince of Prussia · 1770
verified“What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly — that is the first law of nature.”
Voltaire
Philosophical Dictionary · 1764
verified“Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all.”
Voltaire
Letter to the Duchess of Saxe-Gotha · 1762
verified“Let us cultivate our garden.”
Voltaire
Candide · 1759
verified“It is the privilege of true genius, and certainly of the genius that opens a new road, to make without punishment great mistakes.”
Voltaire
The Age of Louis XIV · 1751
verified“It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.”
Voltaire
Zadig · 1747
verifiedMore Philosophy quotes
“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Young India · 1921
verified“Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Statement at his trial, Young India · 1922
verified“There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Young India · 1920
verified“For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best. So, let us be alert — alert in a twofold sense: Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.”
Viktor Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning · 1984
verified“If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death.”
Viktor Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning · 1959
verified“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”
Viktor Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning · 1959
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